It’s a breakup that’s lasted almost as long as the relationship that preceded it.
Dubbed ‘the war of the rosés,’ Angelina Jolie has now accused ‘controlling’ ex Brad Pitt, 60, of ‘financially draining her,’ through the protracted legal battle over the winery that’s dogged the couple since their split in 2016.
But while she seeks to claim her ex is ‘bleeding her dry,’ DailyMail.com can reveal that since their ten-year relationship ended in divorce after a two-year marriage, her fortunes have soared.
Far from causing her funds to dwindle, a DailyMail.com investigation reveals that Jolie’s relationship with Pitt has helped enrich her by close to $100million.
That money has come through loans, child support, gifts and the millions she garnered from the sale of her 50 percent share in the property at the heart of the dispute – Chateau Miraval – ten percent of which was a gift from Pitt.
The couple’s former French home, a stunning 1,200 acre estate and vineyard was worth $60million when they bought it in 2008. Now, thanks to Pitt’s effort and investment in the business, it’s worth a staggering $164million.
And, while Jolie, 48, appears to be crying poverty in her latest court filings, sources close to Pitt point out that the Tomb raider star had sufficient funds to sign a recent deal to take over 57 Great Jones Street, a unique Manhattan space once owned by Andy Warhol and previously rented for $60,000 a month.
Jolie has signed an eight-year lease for the 6,600 square-foot property to use as a store to promote her fashion label, Atelier Jolie.
In newly filed court documents obtained by DailyMail.com, the actress claims: ‘It is extremely painful for Jolie to have to defend herself from Pitt’s lawsuit – itself another example of Pitt’s unrelenting efforts to control and financially drain her – especially because Pitt’s false allegations as to the reasons the Miraval deal cratered can only proven by doing exactly what Jolie never wanted to do: Provide to the trier of fact the reason the Miraval deal failed, which was Pitt’s demand for an NDA to cover up his history of physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their family.’
Says one source familiar with the situation: ‘Angie says Brad is bleeding her dry – but it looks like she wants to bleed him dry.
‘Far from being out to ruin his ex, it looks like Brad has bent over backwards to support Angie and help her out financially in spite of her appearing to be so vindictive,’ the source added.
Pitt had originally sought to buy Jolie out himself, to keep the winery ‘in the family’ should she want to opt out. But the deal collapsed amid acrimony.
Pitt accused Jolie of breaching their purchase agreement when she sold her 50 percent stake in Chateau Miraval to Russian oligarch, Yuri Shefler, in 2021, without her ex-husband’s consent.
According to Jolie the earlier offer to sell it to Pitt for $54million imploded due to his demands.
But friends of the Oscar-winning star of Upon a Time in Hollywood have stepped up to defend Pitt as a man who has been nothing but generous in his dealings with the actress.
By 2018, Pitt had spent more than $1.3million on child support, including therapy for the children, as well as paying hundreds of thousands in sundry bills.
According to sources Pitt has been consistent in his payment of these expenses for the past seven years during which time he is believed to have he has stumped up close to $10million in child support.
When the then couple bought Miraval in 2008, Pitt took a 60 percent stake in the winemaking enterprise and estate while Jolie took 40 percent.
Pitt poured millions into the estate, riding the rosé wave, and expanding the business in an effort that saw sales grow 300 percent.
Soon the estate that they purchased for an estimated $60million was worth closer to $164million.
By the time of their wedding Jolie had ‘stopped investing’ according to previously filed court records – something that she has denied.
Still, Pitt transferred 10 percent of his share to her by way of a wedding gift in December 2013 ‘for the sum of 1Euro [never paid]’ so that by the time of their marriage in August 2014, they were 50/50 equal partners.
As well as this generous gift, Pitt gave his wife a rare Winston Churchill painting, ‘Tower of Koutoubia Mosque’ which she sold in March 2021 for $11.5million.
He loaned her $8million to purchase her current Los Angeles home in 2018.
Jolie bought the grand compound in Los Feliz, once home to Cecil B. DeMille for $24.5million and has since claimed that the $8million from Pitt was in the form of a loan which came with interest and a repayment plan.
Ironically, she told Vogue that she chose the property because she wanted the children to be closer to their father who lives just five minutes away.
Meanwhile, as the war over the sale of the winery plods on, Pitt has landed several legal victories in recent months including a key judgement in Luxembourg which handed him back control of Chateau Miraval’s award-winning vineyard pending further hearings.
Just last month he scored another win when LA Superior Court rejected Jolie’s allegations that his suit was, ‘frivolous, malicious, and part of a problematic pattern.’