Angelina Jolie Accuses Brad Pitt of ‘Putting Preservation Of His Career Above All Else’ in Court War

Angelina Jolie was back in court fighting Brad Pitt only weeks after the exes settled their eight-year divorce battle, In Touch can exclusively report.

The Maria actress, 49, filed an answer to Brad’s lawsuit, where they are battling over a French winery named Château Miraval that they purchased while married, on January 17.

In Brad’s lawsuit, filed in 2022, he accused Angelina of breaking an agreement with him to not sell her 50 percent stake in Miraval without his approval.

The Ocean’s Eleven star claimed he spent years and a substantial amount of money in building Miraval into a successful winery that now turns a profit. The couple, who started dating in 2005, split in 2016.

In 2021, Angelina decided she wanted to sell her stake in Miraval, which they had planned to pass down to their children.

Brad, 61, claimed his team agreed to pay Angelina $55.4 million for her interest in the company.

The actor said he agreed to pay is ex a $46 million lump sum followed by the remaining $8.5 million paid out in installments.

Brad claimed Angelina backed out of the deal after “feigning concern over the terms of a proposed non-disparagement agreement in connection with the deal.”

He said he did not buy this excuse and believes Angelina had “covertly lined up and tentatively struck a deal with a third party.”

Angelina rejected Brad’s deal and ended up selling her stake to a company called Stoli for $64 million.

Brad sued demanding the sale be void.

He also accused the new owners of attempting a hostile takeover of the company. The new owners denied Brad’s claims and filed a countersuit against him for alleged misuse of the company funds. Brad denied the claims. Now, Angelina filed her answer in which she denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Her lawyer explained, “Jolie offered to sell Pitt her half-interest in Chateau Miraval. As part of that sale, Jolie agreed to a common non-disparagement clause limited to not disparaging Miraval’s wine business. If that sale had been completed, this lawsuit never would have happened. But at the last minute, Pitt ‘stepped back’ from his agreement to buy Jolie’s interest in Miraval, and the deal collapsed.”

Angelina said the reason her ex stepped back was because in 2021, as part of their separate custody dispute, she filed documents accusing him of domestic violence.

She said the filing was sealed but Brad feared it would be made public — which it later did. In regard to the abuse allegations, The New York Times reported that Brad’s lawyer previously said the actor accepted responsibility for some things in the past but that he would not accept responsibility for things he did not do.

In her recent filing, the actress claimed Brad stepped back from the back and only offered to close if Angelina agreed to a new condition — “a new non-disparagement clause now expanded to cover all of [Brad’s] personal misconduct, whether related to Miraval or not, which would have included the evidence on [Brad’s] abuse of [Angelina] and their children contained in the under-seal filings.”

Angelina claimed Brad “has himself never publicly denied his actions.” She said for the past five years she has had to deal with his team leaking stuff as “sources” to deny her claims.

She said, “Putting preservation of his career above all else, including over the needs of his family.”

“His actions caused the family years of unnecessary painful stress and the cumulative toll was immense,” Angelina’s filing read. “Still, [Angelina] did her best to shoulder that burden placed not only on her, but on their children, and she never publicly discussed [Brad’s] actions.”

Angelina said even after Brad demanded the strict N.D.A., she still gave him more time to accept the deal without the N.D.A.

She said he responded to her counteroffer but demanded a more restrictive N.D.A. Angelina said she notified Brad she considered their negotiations terminated in June 2021.

She sold her stake to Stoli in October 2021.

Her lawyer added, “Pitt was infuriated that Jolie refused to accept his terms and this lawsuit is his attempt to punish her for her failure to comply. He sues her, claiming, among other things, that he has an unspoken, unwritten buy/sell agreement that Jolie would never sell to another party without his consent. He offers no other terms than that, which conveniently allows him to sidestep what was actually spoken and written, including Pitt’s own statement in 2008 (when the couple was about to purchase Miraval) ‘that it wasn’t necessary for two reasonable people to have such an agreement.’”

Angelina argued that she has appropriately, completely and fully performed and discharged any and all obligations imposed by the contracts alleged in the complaint. She asked that Brad’s suit be tossed and she be awarded her costs of suit.

As In Touch previously reported, Brad and Angelina reached a settlement in their divorce in December 2024.