Brad Pitt’s French winery, at center of his years-long court battle with Angelina Jolie, threatened by wildfires
The French estate has been embroiled in a legal battle between Pitt and Jolie since 2022
NEED TO KNOW
- Smoke from nearby wildfires was seen near Château Miraval but the property appears unharmed so far
- Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt remain in a legal battle over the estate and her 2021 sale of her stake
- Jolie recently pushed back against Pitt’s request for her financial records claiming he mischaracterized her legal arguments
Château Miraval, the French estate at the center of a years-long court battle between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, is being threatened by local wildfires.
In aerial pictures obtained by TMZ on Friday July 31, smoke from the fires can be seen near the sprawling home, which appears unharmed thus far.
The photos show the smoke billowing into the sky near the property’s open land, while Miraval itself remains nestled among trees.
PEOPLE has reached out to representatives for both Jolie and Pitt for comment.
France is currently tackling its worst wildfire season in two decades. George and Amal Clooney recently announced that they’ve evacuated their home in Brignoles, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southeastern France, where they reside with their 9-year-old twins, Alexander and Ella.
Earlier this month, Jolie pushed back against Pitt’s latest effort to obtain years of her financial records, arguing he has repeatedly mischaracterized her claims in their long-running legal battle over the French winery.According to a court filing submitted on June 26 in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by PEOPLE, Jolie asked the court not to require her to turn over tax returns and other financial records dating back to 2017, after Pitt’s June 18 filing, also obtained by PEOPLE, asked her to “produce documents sufficient to show her income and profit participation payments” from 2017 through 2019.
“Jolie has made her alleged financial vulnerability central to her case,” Pitt’s filing stated.
Her attorneys argued Pitt was incorrectly portraying her as claiming financial distress, when her legal filings instead described her efforts to separate her finances from her ex-husband, according to the filing.
“The issue is not whether Jolie needed the money — the issue is that she was trying to untangle her life and her finances from her controlling and abusive ex-husband,” the filing stated. “That distinction makes all the difference.”
Pitt had argued that Jolie made her financial condition relevant to the case by alleging she wanted “financial independence” and had “concluded that she needed to sell her interest in Chateau Miraval” to achieve it. However, Jolie’s attorneys contended in the filing that she “has never alleged that she was in financial distress.”
The latest filing marks another chapter in the former spouses’ years-long dispute over Château Miraval, which they once owned together.
In June, a California Superior Court granted Pitt’s request to question members of the Stoli Group under oath after his attorneys argued the spirits-and-wine company had direct knowledge of Jolie’s 2021 sale of her stake in the winery.
The legal battle began in February 2022, when Pitt sued Jolie over the sale of her interest in Château Miraval, alleging she sold her stake despite a prior agreement that neither would do so without the other’s approval.
Jolie later filed a countersuit, alleging Pitt had been “waging a vindictive war against” her since she filed for divorce in 2016.
