Brad Pitt scores major legal win in court battle with Angelina Jolie over French vineyard

Brad Pitt has scored a major victory in his ongoing legal battle with former wife Angelina Jolie over the French winery where they wed in 2014.

A judge has reportedly ruled in favour of the actor, who had asked Jolie to hand over private emails and text message regarding the sale of her portion of Château Miravel, which is located in the south of France.

Page Six quoted an 'insider' who said the emails would prove "Jolie has been disingenuous since the start regarding her true intentions about selling her share of the business".

The former couple, who famously met and fell in love in 2004 on the set of their film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, while he was still married to Jennifer Aniston, became a couple soon after filming wrapped.

They reportedly bought the vineyard jointly during their union and its chapel was the scene of their 2014 nuptials, which was attended by their six children.

Following their acrimonious split in 2016, which saw Jolie file for divorce, they embarked on a drawn out legal battle over custody of their children and their assets.

They were declared legally single in 2019, before they finally divorced in 2024.

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However, the vineyard, and in particular Jolie's decision to sell off her half to a third party, has proven to be a bone of contention for the former couple.

According to Page Six, Jolie has just 45 days to turn over the material.

But her lawyer, Paul Murphy, told the publication the star and her legal team were "disappointed by the court's interpretation of California's privilege law".

"The court's ruling violates that law, undermines Ms Jolie's fundamental right to a fair trial and represents yet another manifestation of Mr Pitt's years-long effort to harass and control her," he said, adding they would appeal the decision.

The ruling comes almost a year after Pitt launched a lawsuit against Jolie, who he has accused of 'illegally' selling her share of the vineyard to the Stoli Group in 2021.

When the suit was filed in February 2022, he said he and Jolie jointly purchased the property in 2008 for $43 million, and agreed not to sell their shares without consulting each other.

In October, Pitt, 62, requested through the courts that Jolie submit communications with her business manager, Terry Bird, Chloe Dalton and Arminka Helic, her publicists and two financial consultants amid allegations she communicated with Bird about her personal and professional life, including the litigation.

"[Jolie admitted] Bird 'helped [her] identify additional issues on which to seek advice,'" the documents read, per Page Six.

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"What Jolie is describing here are brainstorming sessions between non-lawyers," the filing stated.

"The fact that these brainstorming sessions may have followed or preceded advice from a lawyer on the same general topic or a related topic does not shield them from discovery."

Pitt alleges Jolie's communications with Bird regarding the "terms of sale" to the Stoli Group in 2021 are "the key transaction at issue in this litigation".

"[Jolie] has still produced only one internal email that even mentions the terms of the sale at the centre of this case," his ruling said.

Jolie previously insisted she didn't have to submit the emails and text messages sought.

At the time, she responded to the filing by accusing Pitt of 'invading' her privileged communications with her lawyers.

Pitt first launched legal action against his former wife over the sale of the winery in February 2022. He sought monetary damages and legal fees, and asked for the sale to be voided.

By that June, he accused Jolie, 50, of trying to "inflict harm" on him by selling her share to a company owned by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler.

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