Brad Pitt is getting back a 10% percent equity stake in the Château Miraval Winery from his ex-wife Angelina Jolie after a recent court ruling, but that’s not the end of the story.
To understand how we go here it’s best to go back to how this all began.
In 2008 Brad Pitt and his then girlfriend Angelina Jolie purchased the Château Miraval Winery in France, with Brad Pitt putting up the funding for 60% percent of the estate and Angelina Jolie funding the remaining 40% percent.
Then when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married on August 14, 2014 at the Château Miraval Winery, Brad Pitt gave Angelina Jolie a 10% percent stake as a wedding gift, making with the the Château Miraval Winery a 50/50 split between the two A-list actors and parents to six children together.
Now a court in Luxembourg has put that 10% percent share of the estate into escrow until they make a final ruling, which could take a few years, according to reports.
Complicating the matter, as if it couldn’t get more complicated, is the fact that Angelina Jolie purportedly sold a 50% percent stake in the Château Miraval Winery to Russian billionaire Oligarch Yuri Shefler, valuing the estate at $500 million dollars.
Brad Pitt was not very happy with Angelina Jolie selling her stake out of spite following their divorce, because it turns out that Brad Pitt is quoted as saying he had a “right of first refusal” to buy Angelina Jolie’s 50% stake for an estimated $54.5 million.
That begs the question, what’s a “right of first refusal”?
Well, according to Wikipedia it’s a legal term for “a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transaction with a third party.”
If it’s true that Brad Pitt had a right of first refusal in writing to purchase the Château Miraval Winery for $54.5 million from Angelina Jolie for her 50% stake, then contractually that Russian billionaire Oligarch Yuri Shefler deal to buy Angelina Jolie’s stake is null and void.
I think we can all agree that the last thing Brad Pitt wants is an angry Russian Oligarch coming after him.
Brad Pitt Can Keep an Extra 10% Stake in Château Miraval Winery