Angelina Jolie forced to release NDAs in Brad Pitt winery lawsuit

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A judge has ordered Angelina Jolie to produce eight years worth of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in her ongoing battle with her ex Brad Pitt in a legal war over Chateau Miraval, a French winery they bought together 16 years ago.

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Pitt filed a lawsuit against Jolie in 2022 after she sold her stake in the winery to Russian businessman Yuri Shefler. Pitt maintained that they had a deal not to sell their respective shares of Chateau Miraval without the consent of one another.

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“Jolie consummated the purported sale without Pitt’s knowledge, denying Pitt the consent right she owed him and the right of first refusal her business entity owed his. She sold her interest with the knowledge and intention that Shefler and his affiliates would seek to control the business to which Pitt had devoted himself and to undermine Pitt’s investment in Miraval,” his suit alleges. Per Page Six, the suit also claimed that Miraval had become “Pitt’s passion” since the divorce

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In response, Jolie, who maintained “no such agreement ever existed,” counter-sued Pitt accusing him of physical abuse, with one alleged incident occurring aboard a private plane in 2016 leading to their split.

Her suit claims that “Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face” and “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her.” 

According to PEOPLE, Pitt’s lawyers say the NDAs are “highly relevant” to Jolie’s “purported justifications for refusing to adhere to her contractual obligations to Pitt” prior to her offloading her interest in the winery behind her former husband’s back.

A source close to Pitt told Fox News Digital that the ruling was a “crushing blow,” but Jolie’s legal team says the ruling opens up the possibility of exposing the “unconscionability of Mr. Pitt’s conduct.”

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“Common NDAs are simply not comparable to Mr. Pitt’s last-second demand to try and cover up his personal misconduct,” Jolie’s attorney, Paul Murphy, tells the website. “The judge’s ruling completely opens the door to discovery on all issues related to Pitt’s abuse.”

The former couple purchased Chateau Miraval in 2008 and lived at the home with their six children off-and-on throughout their relationship. But after their split, Jolie sold her 50% ownership interest in Miraval with Pitt fighting the sale, claiming the tactic was a breach a contract.

Pitt, 60, and Jolie, 48, met while filming 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith and were married between 2014 and 2016. They were declared legally single in 2019. 

The Oscar winner maintained that Jolie’s sale of the winery was done to “harm” him in 2022.

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“Pitt and Jolie purchased the chateau as a home to share with their children and the vineyard as a family business,” court documents obtained by Us Weekly read at the time. “They agreed they would never sell their respective interests in Miraval without the other’s consent. The couple spent the holidays at Miraval with their children and were married there in 2014.”

According to Variety, talks between the two over the sale of the winery broke down after Pitt allegedly demanded Jolie sign “a nondisclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.”

Pitt’s team contends that the actor’s proposed NDA for the winery deal was not “unconscionable.”

Meanwhile, Jolie’s lawyer Paul Murphy tells Entertainment Weekly: “Angelina looks forward to the eventual end of this litigation with its false narratives that continue to hurt the family and interfere with their ability to heal.”

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