Most of Brad Pitt's claims against Angelina Jolie dismissed by judge

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been locked in a legal battle of one kind or another since Jolie filed for divorce in 2016. Most recently, Pitt filed a lawsuit against Jolie over her 2021 sale of her shares in their winery Château Miraval to the Stoli group. Pitt’s suit, which sought monetary damages, legal fees and for the sale to be voided, accused Jolie of seeking to “inflict harm” on him with the sale to “a stranger with poisonous associations and intentions,” per Entertainment Tonight. However, while the lawsuit continues, five out of Pitt’s seven claims have been dismissed by a judge, according to the outlet.

The dismissed claims include those that would let Pitt recoup his legal fees, give him Jolie’s shares in the winery, and expose Jolie to punitive damages, per ET. The remaining claims include Pitt’s assertion that the couple had an “unwritten, unspoken implied contract” that Jolie would not sell her shares without Pitt’s consent, as well as payment based on Pitt’s contention that he did more work to make Miraval a thriving business.

“The judge dismissed most of Mr. Pitt’s claims because they don’t have a legal basis. Mr. Pitt’s lawsuit has never been about a business dispute; instead, it is about his attempts to cover up serious abuse, and we are gratified the judge has thrown out so much of Mr. Pitt’s complaint,” Jolie’s attorney Paul Murphy said in a statement to ET. “Angelina truly harbors no ill-will toward Mr. Pitt, and hopes he will now release her from his frivolous lawsuit, stop his relentless attacks, and join her in helping their family heal in private.”

Pitt has accused SPI Group (which owns Stoli, and which is owned by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler) of enacting a “hostile takeover” of Miraval. In turn, Jolie’s former investment company Nouvel (which controlled Jolie’s shares of the winery) has stated in legal filings that Pitt has “looted” the company trying to “seize de facto control” by pouring millions of Miraval’s money into “vanity projects,” according to a previous ET report.

“Incensed that Jolie sold Nouvel to Stoli rather than him, Pitt has acted like a petulant child, refusing to treat Nouvel as an equal partner in the business,” the 2023 filing read. “This very lawsuit—again based on Pitt’s alternative reality in which Jolie allegedly gave him veto rights over a sale of Nouvel that appear nowhere in their written agreements or communications—was initiated by Pitt, not Nouvel.”

Nouvel argued that “Brad Pitt has been engaged in a vindictive campaign to dominate and loot the wine business that the couple had built and owned together.” For her part, Jolie allegedly became “increasingly uncomfortable participating in an alcohol business” with Pitt after the 2016 altercation that precipitated their divorce, in which she accused Pitt of domestic violence while under the influence of alcohol. (Pitt has publicly discussed his sobriety journey since that time.) The family was reportedly returning to California from Miraval when the altercation occurred on a private plane; “given the events that led to her filing for divorce, neither she nor any of the children felt able to return to the chateau,” Nouvel’s legal filing stated.

“Mr. Pitt cannot escape the facts of why Ms. Jolie was forced to sell her shares of the alcohol business—facts that led the FBI to find probable cause that he verbally and physically assaulted Ms. Jolie and their children, even choking one child,” Jolie’s attorney stated in the wake of Nouvel’s filing. “Still today and in the seven years since that fateful plane ride, he has sources deny his abuse and avoids publicly speaking to the issue himself, and the press doesn’t ask him. The reality is that Pitt refused to complete the Miraval sale with Jolie unless she agreed to be silenced about the abuse. She legally sold her shares, yet Pitt persists in lawsuits against her.”