Ever since Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in 2016, the former couple have been embroiled in a number of high-profile, messy legal battles over child custody, their businesses, and their many properties. And it looks like there’s no chance of things slowing down, as reports over the weekend claimed that Brad is refusing to drop the lawsuit against his ex-wife, despite her public pleas for the actor to ‘end the fighting’.

This comment, and the majority of Brad and Angelina’s legal problems, pertain to a lengthy lawsuit over Chateau Miraval, the French winery they purchased in 2008. Both actors owned a 50 per cent share in the property and its wine-making enterprise. In the aftermath of her divorce from Brad, Angelina sold her shares in the vineyard to a wine group for $67 million. One year later, Brad filed a lawsuit against her, claiming that in selling the winery without his permission, Angelina had gone against a previous verbal agreement they made. He sued on a number of grounds, asking for damages and the sale to be reversed.

At the time, Angelina’s lawyers claimed that she had refused to let Brad buy her shares because she wasn’t willing to sign an ‘expansive’ non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Last week, however, Angelina’s legal team, led by lawyer Paul Murphy, called on Brad to ‘end the fighting’ around the lawsuit. They claimed that Brad had ‘control of all the properties the couple shared as well as control of the business’, yet still ‘demands more’.

‘In doing so, Pitt placed squarely at issue why he tried to punish and control Angelina by demanding a newly expanded NDA to cover his personal misconduct and abuse. Those actions are central to these proceedings. We are not at all surprised Mr Pitt is afraid to turn over the documents demonstrating these facts,’ Murphy said. ‘While Angelina again asks Mr Pitt to end the fighting and finally put their family on a clear path toward healing, unless Mr Pitt withdraws his lawsuit, Angelina has no choice but to obtain the evidence necessary to prove his allegations wrong.’

However, it seems that Brad won’t be allowing Angelina the time to ‘heal’ she allegedly needs. Over the weekend, insiders told The Daily Mail that Brad had ‘no intention’ of dropping the case. According to them, her comments came after realising her legal case was less strong than she thought. ‘Brad is not going to drop this lawsuit – why would he? This was a very standard business dispute but unfortunately, Angelina has consistently introduced personal elements that are meant for a divorce court,’ they said, while alleging that the winery would have been the inheritance for the six children the pair share: Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, Knox, 16, Vivienne, 16.

Their source added, ‘Angelina is asking him to put an end to the fighting as if she is a peacemaker. This is nothing more than to paint herself as the victim. Bringing very personal issues into a business lawsuit is backfiring on her. It has exposed the weaknesses in her case and has complicated matters for both parties. She didn’t need to do this.’

Grazia’s source adds that the legal stalemate the former couple is currently living through is emotionally charged as much as it is financial. ‘Brad and Angelina have been at a standoff over this case for longer than anyone can remember. The issue they have at this point, besides their intense loathing and resentment towards one another, is that they’re too far down the road with litigation to just call a truce and let matters drop without resolving anything – they are already incurring an enormous amount of cost on both sides,’ says Grazia’s source. ‘It’s a matter of principle to each of them that they see this through and prove their innocence, especially with so much at stake.’

Many bombshell revelations have arisen during the Miraval case. Back in 2022, in a cross complaint pertaining to the winery, Angelina claimed that Brad was physically and emotionally abusive towards her and their children on a private plane in 2016, in an extended outburst that led to the end of their marriage. It was alleged that Brad ‘choked one of the children and struck another in the face’ and ‘grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her’. At the time, his divorce lawyer said that Brad accepted responsibility for some things in his past, but not things he didn’t do.

Things took an even darker turn in April of this year, when Angelina’s lawyers claimed in court documents, once again relating to the winery lawsuit, that Pitt had a history of physical abuse towards her tracking back before the 2016 incident. According to the lawyers, this alleged incident marked the first time he had turned on the children, and Angelina filed for divorce days later.

Brad’s reported refusal to back down in his legal case comes months after Shiloh turned 18 and immediately took legal action to officially distance herself from her father. Zahara, Pax and Maddox are said to have all already dropped Pitt from their double-barrelled surname, but Shiloh is the first to do so officially. A source has told Grazia that Jolie remains close to all her children, with their loyalty meaning ‘everything to her’ following the tricky period that has followed her divorce from Brad.

IMAGE CREDIT: IMAGO