Brad Pitt has just scored a major victory in his legal battle with ex-wife Angelina Jolie over their Chateau Miraval winery estate. The former power couple has been at it for years, with Pitt fighting Jolie for selling her stake in the winery to a Russian oligarch despite previous agreements. He wants the sale undone by the court. Now, a judge has ruled in favor of the Fight Club actor, granting his motion to have access to his wife’s NDAs from over the years.
On Wednesday, Judge Lia Matin of LA Superior Court granted Pitt’s motion, asking his ex-wife to hand over all NDAs she entered into with third parties between 2014 and 2022. The ruling is a heavy blow to Jolie’s case as NDAs have been a major bone of contention between the exes. Earlier, Jolie argued that she backed out of her agreement with Pitt because he tried to manipulate her into signing an NDA. Her legal team claimed the deal was an “unconscionable” attempt for Pitt to “control” her even though they are no longer together.
However, Pitt’s team fired back, accusing the Maleficent actress of using the excuse of an NDA to “rationalize” selling her share of the vineyard behind her ex-husband’s back. The Troy actor’s attorney argued that Jolie often uses NDAs in her own dealings with other people. Hence, her objection to it seems unfounded. “If Jolie has required others to sign NDAs that were at least as broad as the one she claims was so ‘unconscionable’ here, it would severely undermine her claimed excuse for terminating negotiations with Pitt,” the filing read.
Judge Matin seemed to agree with this sentiment and dismissed Jolie’s objection that her NDAs had no relevance in the case. An excerpt of the ruling reads, “Put simply, the Requests are reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of documents that will test whether Jolie was truly so offended by the proposed NDA and her claim that she was entitled to breach her contract with Pitt.” Per The Sun, Jolie has only 60 days to produce all relevant documents to the court.
Brad Pitt Seeks To Only Punish Jolie With Ruling
Following the ruling, a source close to Jolie claimed Pitt wanted to “punish” her, hence his request to access her NDAs. The insider told People Magazine that Pitt made such a power move for the “press” despite knowing the NDAs wouldn’t be brought up during the trial. “They also know that this will force Angelina to spend resources tracking all of this information down, which is just another way to drain her resources and punish her for leaving,” the source claimed.
However, a Pitt source denied those allegations, telling the publication, “The other side introduced the NDA issue into what is a straightforward business dispute, so it’s ironic that they are now complaining about it.”
