Brad Pitt has filed a lawsuit against Angelina Jolie for selling her share of a French winery they owned jointly — and where they married — to a Russian billionaire.

In 2012, the pair paid around €25 million for a controlling interest in the vineyard, and they married there in 2014. Pitt claims that when they separated two years later, they agreed to a “mutual understanding” that neither of them would sell their stake without the other’s permission.

According to the lawsuit, “Jolie never sought Pitt’s consent to the purported transaction” or even offered to sell her shares to her ex-husband on the same conditions she sold them to Tenute del Mondo, a part of the vodka company Stoli Group, which is controlled by Russian tycoon Yuri Shefler.

According to the suit, Pitt’s objective is to overturn the sale of the winery, which he credits with turning into a “multimillion-dollar international success story and one of the world’s most highly regarded producers of rosé wine.”

“She sold her interest with the knowledge and intention that Shefler and his affiliates would seek to control the business to which Pitt had devoted himself and to undermine Pitt’s investment in Miraval,” according to the lawsuit.

Pitt, 58, said he “poured money and sweat equity” into creating Miraval one of the world’s most prestigious rosé wine producers, with yearly turnover topping $50 million (£36.8 million), according to the lawsuit.

Jolie is attempting to “recover unearned windfall profits for herself while inflicting gratuitous harm on Pitt,” according to Pitt’s filing. Jolie allegedly broke the terms of their original agreement by not offering him first refusal for her share.

“Jolie long ago stopped contributing to Miraval,” it says, “while Pitt poured money and sweat equity into the wine business, building it into the ascendant company it is today.”

According to the complaint, Jolie informed Pitt in January 2021 that she had made a “painful decision, with a heavy heart” to sell her Miraval stock because she could no longer operate an alcohol-based firm due to personal issues.

In October, Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of privately held Stoli, announced the purchase of Jolie’s interest.

Jolie also utilized the sale of her shares as an “opportunity to capitalize on Pitt’s success and cash out, without ever having to lifted a finger to grow the enterprise,” according to the lawsuit.

For breach of contract and other legal issues, the case in Los Angeles Superior Court seeks unspecified compensation and punitive damages.

Jolie and Pitt divorced in 2016, and their divorce was finalized in 2019. They are the parents of six children.