You would think that after nearly a decade apart, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would finally be done with courtrooms. But here we are again.
Their marriage ended years ago. Their custody battles wrapped up a while back too. Yet the two stars are still locked in a legal fight — this time over a French winery called Château Miraval and a question that just won’t go away: was Jolie ever actually cash-strapped?
It’s a strange question to ask about one of Hollywood’s biggest names. But Pitt’s legal team thinks her bank records hold the answer, and they want her tax returns to prove it.
How a Winery Turned Into a Courtroom Battle
Before we get to the tax drama, it helps to understand why Miraval matters so much.
Back in 2011, Pitt and Jolie bought a sprawling 1,000-acre estate in the south of France. It wasn’t just a romantic getaway. The property came with a working vineyard, a wedding venue, and a rosé wine brand that eventually landed on shelves worldwide, from grocery stores to five-star restaurants.
The couple actually got married there in 2014. Long before “Brangelina” ever set foot on the land, Miraval had already hosted music legends like Pink Floyd, Sting, and The Cranberries, who recorded albums inside its historic studio.
So when the marriage fell apart, Miraval wasn’t just a piece of real estate. It was a shared legacy — and that made splitting it up incredibly messy.
The Sale That Started It All
After the split, Jolie made a move that changed everything. In 2021, she sold her 50% stake in Miraval to Tenute del Mondo, the wine arm of Stoli Group, in a deal reportedly worth $64 million. Stoli is run by Russian-born billionaire Yuri Shefler.
Pitt did not take the news well.
He claims the two of them had a handshake understanding: neither would sell their share without the other’s sign-off. When Jolie sold anyway, Pitt sued in 2022, arguing she’d broken that promise and handed over her stake to someone he never would have chosen as a business partner.
That single sale is now the center of everything — including the newest fight over Jolie’s finances.
Why Pitt’s Lawyers Want Her Tax Returns
According to recent court filings, Pitt’s legal team is pushing hard for Jolie’s income records and profit-sharing payments from 2017 to 2019. That three-year window isn’t random. It covers the period right after their 2016 separation, right when Jolie bought a major Los Angeles mansion, and right before she eventually sold her Miraval stake.
Here’s the logic behind the request: Jolie has argued in court that she lacked real financial options and needed to sell her Miraval share to gain independence. Pitt’s side wants to test that claim. If her tax returns show she had plenty of income and resources during those years, it could poke a serious hole in her argument that selling to Stoli was her only real choice.
The $33 Million Maleficent Card
To back up their case, Pitt’s lawyers also brought up Jolie’s earning power as an actress.
They pointed out that she reportedly pocketed around $33 million for playing the title role in “Maleficent,” making her the highest-paid actress in Hollywood that year. Their argument is simple: someone commanding that kind of paycheck doesn’t exactly sound broke.
Jolie’s team sees it very differently. Her lawyers say she never claimed to be poor or unable to support herself. According to them, “financial independence” simply meant separating her money from Pitt’s after the marriage ended — not proof that she was drowning in debt.
So Where Did the “Living Paycheck to Paycheck” Rumor Come From?
This whole cash-strapped narrative didn’t start in a courtroom. It started with tabloids back in 2018.
Reports at the time claimed Jolie was “living paycheck to paycheck” while she stepped back from big acting roles to focus on directing films, humanitarian work, and raising her six kids. The theory went like this: directing projects were meaningful to her, but they didn’t pay like a Disney blockbuster. Her real payday was expected to come from “Maleficent 2,” which would mark her first massive acting check in years.
Here’s the thing, though. Being wealthy and having cash-flow problems aren’t the same thing.
A person can be worth tens of millions and still feel squeezed if most of that money is locked up in real estate, trusts, shared property, legal fees, or future contract payments. That’s not the same as being broke — it’s just complicated. And Jolie’s finances after the split were, without question, complicated.
The $8 Million Loan That Fueled the Rumors
One detail from the divorce fight added real fuel to the fire: an $8 million loan.
After separating from Pitt, Jolie bought the historic Cecil B. DeMille estate in Los Feliz for around $25 million. (She later listed the mansion for $30 million.) Court documents revealed that Pitt personally loaned her $8 million to help cover the purchase. His side also claimed he’d paid more than $1.3 million toward bills for Jolie and their children.
Jolie’s team pushed back on how that story was framed. According to her lawyers, the $8 million wasn’t some form of hidden support — it was an interest-bearing loan, plain and simple. They also argued Pitt hadn’t paid his fair share of the kids’ expenses over the years.
Still, once the public learned that one of the most famous women in the world needed an $8 million loan to buy a house, the rumors practically wrote themselves. It didn’t prove she was broke, but it definitely gave the story legs.
The $80 Million Money Trail
Fast forward to late 2024, when Pitt and Jolie finally settled their divorce after years of legal back-and-forth.
By January 2025, reports surfaced claiming Jolie had come out roughly $80 million richer from a series of asset sales tied to the divorce. To be clear, that figure isn’t a settlement check from Pitt. It mostly comes down to two major deals.
The first was a painting. Jolie sold a Winston Churchill artwork called “Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque” — a gift from Pitt — at Christie’s auction house in 2021 for $11.5 million.
The second, and by far the bigger one, was her $64 million sale of the Miraval stake.
And that brings us right back to where this all began.
Why the Miraval Fight Still Isn’t Over
Pitt and Jolie bought Château Miraval while they were still a couple, and for Pitt, it was never just a vacation property. He’s described it as a family legacy, a business he spent years building into a serious global wine brand.
Jolie sees it differently. Her side insists she never needed his blessing to sell, and that letting go of her stake was simply part of untangling her life and finances from his after years of legal battles.
That disagreement is exactly why the tax returns matter so much right now. Pitt’s lawyers want proof one way or the other: did Jolie truly have no other financial options, or did she have plenty of resources and choose to sell for reasons that had nothing to do with money?
A judge has not yet decided whether Jolie will be required to hand over the additional financial records. Until that ruling comes down, the question of whether Angelina Jolie was ever really “cash-strapped” remains very much unanswered.
Stay with EarlyMagazine UK for the latest updates on Hollywood’s biggest legal battles and celebrity finance stories.
