Angelina Jolie’s lawyer has hailed the latest development in her legal battle with Brad Pitt as an “important victory”.
Angelina Jolie’s lawyer says she has scored “an important victory” in her legal battle with Brad Pitt over their French winery.
The former couple – who separated in 2016 after 12 years together – have been locked in a legal battle over the winery since the 50-year-old actress sold her stake in Miraval in 2021, and the F1 actor previously filed documents asking a judge to shut down her demand for $33,000 and to force his ex-wife to turn over a number of private emails she has previously refused to produce.
This week, according to legal documents seen by the Daily Mail newspaper, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Cindy Pánuco ruled that Jolie shouldn’t have to provide 22 emails discussing the case, despite a judge ordering her to do so in December last year.
In a statement to the outlet, Jolie’s lawyer Paul Murphy hailed the ruling “an important victory”.
He added: “The decision shows that Mr. Pitt was completely out of bounds when he sought access to obviously privileged documents.
“He initially demanded 126 privileged documents, but then backtracked to 22, and now Mr. Pitt is getting nothing, zero.”
Murphy described the legal requests as indicative of Pitt’s “pattern of demanding control over anything Angelina including control over her communications with her own attorneys”.
He said: “We are extremely gratified that both the Court of Appeal and the trial court ultimately put a stop to it.”
However, a source close to Pitt told TMZ that his ex-wife’s team simply obtained “a potential temporary decision that allows them to keep information about her real intentions out of court”.
Meanwhile, the judge has also denied Jolie’s request to fine Pitt’s lawyers $34,000 for using a motion in an attempt to obtain the emails, insisting “sanctions are not warranted”.
Pitt had been keen to see correspondence between Jolie and her business manager, Terry Bird, her British publicists, Chloe Dalton and Arminka Helic, and two financial consultants.
In documents obtained by Us Weekly magazine in October 2025, the 62-year-old star highlighted that in her own declaration, Jolie had declared it was “her routine practice to engage in lengthy conversations with her non-attorney business manager Terry Bird about ‘essentially all aspects of [her] business and professional life’ including discussion about ‘legal advice and proposed strategy’ at issue.’”
He added: “What Jolie is describing here are brainstorming sessions between non-lawyers. The fact that these brainstorming sessions may have followed or preceded advice from a lawyer on the same general topic or a related topic does not shield them from [being turned over].”
Pitt argued the Maria actress “has categorically withheld such communications, including the entirety of all but one of Bird’s internal communications discussing the terms of the sale of her interest in Chateau Miraval to the [third party] — the key transaction at issue in this litigation”.
With the emails to her publicists, Pitt said no lawyers were copied in and Jolie has yet to explain why the assistance of “British image consultants was reasonably necessary to receive legal advice regarding the sale of the French home and winery she owned”.
And after more than three years of litigation, he believes there are many missing emails and Jolie has ” still produced only one internal email that even mentions the terms of the sale at the centre of this case”.
The Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-stars – who married in 2014 – finally finalised their divorce in December 2024 but are still in dispute over Chateau Miraval.
After Jolie sold her stake to Tenute del Mondo, the wine division of the Stoli Group, Pitt filed a lawsuit in February 2022 alleging she had made the sale despite them having an agreement that neither would do so unless the other approved.
The Maleficent actress responded with a countersuit in September of that year, arguing the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor had been “waging a vindictive war against” her since she filed for divorce.
Angelina Jolie ‘scores important victory’ in winery legal battle with Brad Pitt
