As the legal battles continue between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, a new Vanity Fair exposé is diving deeper into the contentious former couple’s showdown over Miraval, their estate in the south of France and its successful namesake wines.
The couple purchased the property in May 2008, just before the birth of their twins, Knox and Vivienne. It was the site of their wedding in 2014, ahead of which Pitt gifted Jolie 10 percent of his stake in the property and winemaking ventures, making them 50-50 partners.
“Miraval was a love letter to his wife and his children, providing a beautiful life for Angelina and the kids and shielding them from the intense pressures of celebrity,” said Frank Pollaro, a furniture designer who helped jumpstart Pitt’s interest in winemaking, according to the article.
However, as their relationship soured beyond repair in the last few years, the battle over Miraval has gotten personal and ugly. Vanity Fair‘sarticle notes that, prior to the couple’s purchase of the property, Jolie’s business manager suggested a doomsday clause stipulating that, in the event that the pair ever split, each would have the right to buy the other’s share of Miraval.
In love as they were at the time, the couple rejected the idea. According to a cross-complaint by Jolie in the ongoing legal battle, Pitt said it “wasn’t necessary for two reasonable people.” He would later state that he and Jolie promised each other to never sell their respective stakes in Miraval without the other’s consent, a claim Jolie now denies.
An aerial shot of the Miraval estate taken in May 2008.
MICHEL GANGNE/AFP via Getty Images
Read on for more of the personal details revealed in the Vanity Fair piece.
PERSONAL EMAILS
Jolie emailed Pitt “with a heavy heart” on Jan. 21, 2021, to tell him of her decision to sell her stake in Miraval, in part because it was “a business that is centered around alcohol” — likely a reference to the now-infamous 2016 plane incident, in which Jolie claims Pitt…
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