Brad Pitt wants to access private messages in ongoing legal battle with ex Angelina Jolie
(Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty; MICHEL GANGNE/AFP via Getty Images)
Brad Pitt is turning up the heat in his ongoing legal battle with ex-wife Angelina Jolie, requesting private communications in a fresh court filing tied to their shared ownership over the famed Château Miraval winery.
The two have been battling over the winery ever since Angelina filed for divorce and sold her shares to The Stoli Group.
The “F1” actor, 61, filed new documents on June 30, obtained by People, revealing his efforts to depose Alexey Oliynik, an insider at the Stoli Group. Pitt alleges that Oliynik holds crucial firsthand knowledge about Jolie’s controversial 2021 sale of the French vineyard they once co-owned, which was sold to Tenute del Mondo, the wine division of Stoli Group.
This move comes after Pitt’s February 2022 lawsuit accusing Jolie, 50, of violating their agreement by not seeking his approval before a sale. Jolie fired back in September with a countersuit, accusing Pitt of “waging a vindictive war” against her ever since she filed for divorce in 2016.
According to Pitt’s new court filing in the Superior Court of California, Oliynik refused to appear for a deposition or share relevant documents.
“These requests go directly to key allegations about Pitt’s objections to the sale,” according to Pitt’s legal team and “easily meet the standard for discoverability given Pitt’s allegations that Jolie acted with malice in selling to Stoli, a counterparty she knew Pitt opposed.”
Jolie’s legal team said in the latest court proceedings that Pitt refused to buy her out of the winery business because she wouldn’t agree to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Her attorney says this agreement was crafted to “silence her about his abuse and cover-up.” This refers to the 2016 private jet incident where Pitt was allegedly verbally and physically abusive – after investigations, he was not charged.
The exes, who share six children —Maddox, 22, Pax, 21, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 19, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne —finalized their divorce in December 2024. That same year in May, a judge ruled Jolie must provide eight years’ worth of NDAs, which would illustrate that the Oscar winning actress did in fact use the kind of NDAs she refused to sign in 2021.
