LOS ANGELES — Hollywood actor Brad Pitt has secured a critical legal victory in his multiyear battle against his ex-wife Angelina Jolie over the ownership of their French vineyard, Château Miraval.
A Michigan judge ruled that lawyers representing the Stoli Group acted unlawfully during a December hearing by instructing the company's former chief legal officer, Todd Culyba, to withhold information. According to court documents obtained by Page Six, the executive was barred from answering 33 specific questions.
Following the judicial order, Culyba must return to court to face questioning again. He is expected to answer all of the previously blocked queries alongside any relevant follow-up questions from Pitt's legal team.
INVESTIGATING THE MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR SALE
The presiding judge clarified that Stoli's legal team could not weaponize attorney-client privilege to shield purely business aspects of the Miraval transaction. The ruling allows Pitt's lawyers to legally probe those commercial topics.
The decision gives Pitt's legal team the green light to dig deeper into the exact circumstances surrounding Jolie’s sale of her Miraval stake. The lucrative share was sold to Tenute del Mondo, which operates as the wine division of the Stoli Group.
Pitt initiated the initial lawsuit back in 2022. The actor claims that the former couple shared a binding agreement stipulating that neither party could sell their respective shares of the vineyard without the explicit consent of the other.
AN ONGOING VINDICTIVE WAR
Jolie has consistently rejected Pitt's claims regarding a mutual agreement. In her own countersuit, the actress accused her ex-husband of leveraging the ongoing courtroom proceedings to wage a vindictive war against her.
The recent ruling follows a minor victory for Jolie just weeks prior, when a Los Angeles court blocked Pitt’s attempts to force the disclosure of her private emails.
The high-profile couple separated in 2016, initiating a highly publicized split. Following more than eight years of intense legal disputes over finances and custody, their divorce was officially finalized in December 2024.
