Angelina Jolie Battles Brad Pitt on Assets in Joint Winery Venture

Angelina Jolie hopes to sever business ties with her ex-husband Brad Pitt.

Seeking to lift any automatic temporary restraining order put in place amid her divorce proceedings with Pitt, Jolie wants to then sell her share of Nouvel, LLC, an acquisition made prior to her marriage with the actor, with interests in the pair's Chateau Miraval rosé winery venture from 2011. Back then, the two embarked on their journey, growing grapes for rosé on the Chateau Miraval vineyard, the thousand-acre estate where they also married in 2014. In 2013, Wine Spectator reportedly rated the couple's rosé as the best in the world.

Per Jolie's attorney, Joseph Mannis, "The parties' divorce altered the parties' ability to work together as business partners," in large part due to the ATRO, a fairly standard order in divorce proceedings that freezes shared assets between then-married parties so as to stabilize movement of finances and prevent one from altering the financial status quo from marriage. The order has prevented Jolie from selling her share to a third-party prospective buyer, as the sale calls for the immediate signing of an exclusivity agreement.

Jolie's third-party prospective sale reportedly comes after an unsuccessful attempt at selling her share directly to Pitt, as they failed to settle on a satisfactory buyout price.

Jolie previously attempted to have the ATROs lifted, but was denied "for lack of showing of immediate danger/irreparable harm or immediate loss/damage to property," according to E! News's acquired legal report. In response, Jolie's legal team argued that "time is of the essence," as the actress may lose out on the sale opportunity with the prospective buyer should the process take too long. "Unless the ATROs are immediately lifted with respect to the proposed sale of [Jolie's] membership interest in Nouvel, LLC ... the third-party buyer will not be bound to go forward with the sale and [Jolie] will be at [Pitt's] mercy to control the terms of any disposition of her separate property until such time as this matter comes to trial on the remaining financial issues," they said.

Legal action has continued between Jolie and Pitt since Jolie's filing for divorce in 2016. The pair legally separated in 2019, though they have still been under proceedings to settle the custody of their children. In an April interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jolie opened up about the ways in which the ongoing divorce proceedings have affected her. "I love directing, but I had a change in my family situation that's not made it possible for me to direct for a few years," Jolie shared. "I needed to just do shorter jobs and be home more, so I kind of went back to doing a few acting jobs. That's really the truth of it."

The hearing on the issue of assets is set to take place on September 22.

Sabrina Park is a Digital Fellow at HarpersBAZAAR.com where she covers news, fashion, and culture stories. When she’s not writing she loves hanging out with her cat, reading outdoors and scrolling the depths of TikTok.

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