Brad Pitt is taking Angelina Jolie to court over the sale of their winery.
Jolie sold Chateau Miraval to a Russian oligarch and Pitt is suing her to undo the deal.
In court documents obtained by ET, Pitt acknowledges that Jolie did pay 40 per cent of the $28.4 million purchase price, but he has put in lots of time and money into sprucing up and renovating the winery.
The couple bought the winery — located in Correns, France — in 2008 and Pitt says he made it a success in 2013 after Jolie took a back seat. (They were married on the property in 2014.)
According to the Fury actor, they had an agreement they couldn’t sell without the other’s consent.
As part of the divorce proceedings, Jolie told a judge last year she had an interested Luxembourg-based buyer. Pitt gave consent to pursue the sale but needed to give the final go-ahead to the prospective buyer.
Pitt claims he was in disbelief when he found out last October that Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of Stoli Group, owned by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler, had bought Jolie’s interest; Pitt also says that Jolie knew that he was interested in buying her out.
The court docs state that Jolie never sought consent and claim she intentionally hid details. Pitt also asserts that Shefler has made it difficult for him to run Chateau Miraval and is no longer allowed to use it has his private home.
Pitt is suing for an unspecified amount in damages. He would also like Jolie’s sale to be made null and void.
“Unfortunately, this is another example of the same person disregarding her legal and ethical obligations. In doing so, she has violated the rights of the only person who poured money and sweat equity into the success of the business by purporting to sell both the business and family home to a third-party competitor,” a source told TMZ. “She is seeking a return on an investment she did not make and profits she did not earn.”
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