Angelina Jolie Refuses Brad Pitt’s Request for Years of Financial Records as Château Miraval Legal Battle Rages on

In a recent court filing, seen by PEOPLE, Jolie’s attorneys argued Pitt had mischaracterized her previous claims by suggesting she alleged financial distress

NEED TO KNOW

• Angelina Jolie is asking a judge not to require her to turn over financial records dating back to 2017 in her ongoing Château Miraval legal battle with Brad Pitt
• In a recent court filing, Jolie’s attorneys argued Pitt had mischaracterized her previous claims by suggesting she alleged financial distress
• The filing contended Jolie sought “financial independence from her ex-husband,” not because she needed money, but to separate her finances from Pitt

Angelina Jolie is pushing back against Brad Pitt’s latest effort to obtain years of her financial records, arguing he has repeatedly mischaracterized her claims in their long-running legal battle over Château Miraval, according to a recent court filing obtained by PEOPLE.

In the filing submitted on June 26 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jolie asked the court not to require her to turn over tax returns and other financial records dating back to 2017, after Pitt’s June 18 filing, also obtained by PEOPLE, asked her to “produce documents sufficient to show her income and profit participation payments” from 2017 through 2019.

“Jolie has made her alleged financial vulnerability central to her case,” Pitt’s filing stated.

Her attorneys argued Pitt was incorrectly portraying her as having claimed she was in financial distress, when her legal filings instead described her efforts to separate her finances from her ex-husband, according to the filing.

“The issue is not whether Jolie needed the money — the issue is that she was trying to untangle her life and her finances from her controlling and abusive ex-husband,” the filing stated. “That distinction makes all the difference.”

Pitt had argued that Jolie made her financial condition relevant to the case by alleging she wanted “financial independence” and had “concluded that she needed to sell her interest in Chateau Miraval” to achieve it. However, Jolie’s attorneys contended in the filing that she “has never alleged that she was in financial distress.”

“Her allegations are clear that she sought to untangle her financial life from the ex-spouse she was divorcing,” the filing added.

Pitt had argued in his filing that Jolie had “repeatedly placed at issue the financial distress and susceptibility to economic pressure she allegedly faced following her separation from Pitt in 2016. Yet there is substantial reason to doubt this allegation.”

The document stated that “Jolie was, during the relevant period, one of Hollywood’s most prominent and highly compensated actresses, with income streams from major studio projects and profit-participation rights.”

It added that “during and around the relevant period, Jolie starred in, committed to star in, or received compensation from major commercial films, including Disney’s Maleficent franchise and Marvel’s Eternals. Jolie’s Maleficent films grossed well over $1 billion worldwide, and Eternals grossed approximately $402.1 million worldwide.”

Jolie’s filing claimed she had already turned over her tax returns and profit participation statements for 2020 and 2021, even though her attorneys maintained she was not required to do so. Requiring her to produce records from 2017 through 2019 would amount to “a serious invasion of Jolie’s privacy rights,” her attorneys insisted.

Her attorneys further contended that Pitt’s request relied on “selective quotes and inaccurate paraphrasing” rather than what Jolie actually alleged in previous court filings.

“Discovery motion practice should be grounded in what actually appears in the pleadings, not on recharacterizations designed to grab headlines but that have no basis in reality,” the filing stated.

However, Pitt’s lawyers had insisted, “Jolie has made her financial condition central to her cross-claim and defense. She cannot now use her alleged financial vulnerability as a sword while simultaneously invoking privacy interests as a shield against scrutiny.”

The latest filing marks another chapter in the former spouses’ years-long dispute over Château Miraval, the French winery they once owned together.

Last month, a California Superior Court granted Pitt’s request to question members of the Stoli Group under oath after his attorneys argued the spirits-and-wine company had direct knowledge of Jolie’s 2021 sale of her stake in the winery.

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PEOPLE has reached out to attorneys for both Jolie and Pitt for comment.

The legal battle began in February 2022, when Pitt sued Jolie over the sale of her interest in Château Miraval, alleging she sold her stake despite a prior agreement that neither would do so without the other’s approval.

Jolie later filed a countersuit, alleging Pitt had been “waging a vindictive war against” her since she filed for divorce in 2016.

The former spouses reached a divorce settlement in December 2024.