Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie could end up like Johnny Depp, Amber Heard if they don’t resolve winery dispute outside of court, expert
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been urged to resolve their dispute over the French Winery outside of court to avoid losing the property altogether.
Discussing the ongoing legal battle between the Babylon star and Maleficent actor over their once shared French Winery, Château Miraval, a lawyer said that two should not take their case to trial.
Speaking to Us Weekly, lawyer Neama Rahmani said that famous
Hollywood exes, who are parents to six kids, could lose the winery if they
take their battle to court.
Rahmani said that Pitt and Jolie risk
the same fate as Depp and Heard while talking about their defamation case
which created a lot of drama and remained in news for months during and
following the trial.
“There’s so many allegations,” the legal
expert said. “You’ve got family law, you’ve got custody, there’s allegations
of abuse, and obviously, you have a very valuable chateau that the two are
fighting over.”
Pitt filed a lawsuit against Jolie in February 2022, claiming
that she sold her shares in their once jointly owned winery despite having
an agreement that they won’t sell their stakes without each other’s
consent.
In a recent court filing, the hunk also alleged that
Jolie sold her shares to a “Russian oligarch” to hurt him following their
divorce and amid their ongoing kids’ custody battle.
“What Brad
is arguing here is there was an agreement — it seems like it’s the
handwritten, back of the napkin type agreement — where Angelina said ‘I
wouldn’t do it,’” Rahmani said.
“But also, what he’s arguing here
is, well, even if Angelina could sell to a third party, he had a right of
first refusal. He could match any offer, and Angelina didn’t give him the
opportunity to do so.”
The legal expert said that Pitt is now
“trying to unwind the sale,” and the best result he could get would be
having “the entire chateau to himself, or at least the opportunity to buy
out Angelina.”
“This is his estate. This is where he got
married,” the lawyer noted. “Apparently, he wants to retire there. I don’t
think he wants to be sharing it or have a Russian oligarch as a
roommate.”
However, issuing a warning to the former lovers,
Rahmani said that if the battle goes to court, the chances are higher that
both Pitt and Jolie could lose out on what they want.
“Sometimes
when the court can’t [decide], they might order just to sell. They might
auction it off to a third party and have everyone just be paid out,” Rahmani
said.
“That’s not one of those situations where you’re a kid and
you draw a line in the middle of the room with your siblings. It’s hard if
you’re in some sort of dispute with a co-owner of a big property.
“This
may end up being the next Johnny Depp, Amber Heard-type case because these
two don’t like each other, there’s a lot of money at stake, the allegations
are serious and I don’t see a resolution happening anytime soon,” the lawyer
said.
