Brad Pitt demands access to Angelina Jolie’s tax documents for 2017–2019 as part of the ongoing legal dispute surrounding French winery Château Miraval.
According to the actor, these papers are necessary to verify the arguments of the ex-wife about the reasons for the sale of her share in the joint business. Jolie refuses disclose earlier returns, calling such a request an invasion of her financial privacy.
The dispute concerns Château Miraval, a French estate and winery that the former spouses purchased together. In 2021, Jolie sold her stake to Tenute del Mondo, a company associated with the Stoli Group of entrepreneur Yuri Shefler. Pitt argues that the deal violated an agreement under which neither party could sell its share without the consent of the other. Jolie denies this. Reuters
Why did Pitt need tax returns?
In a June 18 court filing, Pitt’s representatives said Jolie’s financial situation was relevant to her arguments in the case. They point out that Jolie cited the need to separate her finances from her ex-husband’s and achieve independence after the breakdown of the marriage.
Pitt’s side believes that the declarations for 2017–2019 will help check how well its statements correspond to the real financial situation of that period. In Pitt’s legal logic, this is not a dispute about whether Jolie can be wealthy, but an attempt to establish exactly what circumstances accompanied the sale of her stake in Miraval.
Jolie’s lawyers object that Pitt is taking certain phrases out of context. According to their version, the actress did not declare financial distress and did not claim that she was forced to sell the share due to lack of money. It was about the desire to end the financial relationship with the ex-spouse, and not about the inability to support oneself.
What Jolie has already conveyed
According to Jolie’s position, she has already voluntarily provided Pitt with documents for 2020 and 2021. However, she does not intend to disclose tax returns for an earlier period, believing that this does not directly relate to the disputed transaction and unduly affects her personal financial information.
Her representatives also emphasize that Pitt’s request concerns the years after filing for divorce, but before the sale of his stake in Miraval. Therefore, in their opinion, it does not prove either the legality or illegality of the 2021 deal itself.
Why Château Miraval remains a subject of war
Pitt and Jolie’s divorce proceedings were finally settled in December 2024. However, the property dispute surrounding Château Miraval continues separately. The winery and estate, located in the south of France, has long become not just an asset, but a symbol of their long-running conflict.
Pitt insists that the sale of Jolie’s stake to the Stoli Group was carried out without the required consent. Jolie and her former company, Nouvel LLC, argue that Pitt did not have any mandatory veto power, and he is using the lawsuit as a way to continue to control his ex-wife and her decisions.
Recent court decisions
In June, a court in California granted part of Pitt’s requests and ordered representatives of the Stoli Group to testify on the circumstances of the purchase of Jolie’s share. This was a separate procedural success for the actor’s side, but did not resolve the main dispute about the legality of the deal, writes El País.
Previously, the court also limited Pitt’s attempts to obtain part of Jolie’s personal correspondence, protected by attorney-client privilege. This shows that the process does not proceed as a one-sided series of victories, but as an endless exchange of petitions, appeals and documents. For rich people, divorce sometimes ends only on paper, and then lives in lawyers’ files for years.
What happens next
Now the court will have to decide how much Jolie’s tax documents for 2017-2019 really relate to the subject of the proceedings. If the request is granted, Pitt will receive more data to test her arguments. If the court finds the documents to be overly personal or insufficiently related to the case, the petition may be denied or limited.
The main question remains the same: whether Jolie had the right to sell her stake in Château Miraval without Pitt’s consent and whether there were legally binding agreements between the former spouses. Tax returns may be an important part of the process, but they will not in themselves put an end to a dispute that has long ceased to be just a conflict over wine and real estate.
Sources: People, TMZ, Reuters, Reuters. The material is based on statements of the parties and court documents; The final conclusions on the dispute must be made by the court.
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