Around this time last year, Angelina Jolie was campaigning for awards and nominations for Maria, all while Brad Pitt was desperately trying to impose himself on her life and newscycles. Around Christmas 2024, Pitt finally agreed to the divorce terms and signed the papers. Angelina followed suit a few days later. While their divorce had been bifurcated years beforehand, one year ago marked the official dissolution of their marriage, more than eight years after Angelina dramatically left Brad following his alcohol-fueled violence on a private plane. But Brad wasn’t done punishing Angelina and obsessing over everything around her. He was still suing her over the sale of Nouvel (her half of Chateau Miraval), and she’s still countersuing him for being a liar and nuisance. Throughout the year, Brad and his legal team have been trying to get their hands on all of Angelina’s communications in 2016-2017, and her comms around the sale of Nouvel. They not only wanted her comms with business advisors and friends, they wanted her communications with her lawyers. Well, last week, Brad “scored a legal victory.”

Brad Pitt has scored a new procedural legal victory in his ongoing winery dispute with ex-wife Angelina Jolie. According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered Jolie, 50, to turn over previously withheld or “unredacted” communications related to the legal battle over Château Miraval. The ruling was handed down on Wednesday, Dec. 17, just one day before the two-time Oscar winner’s 62nd birthday.

The judge granted Pitt’s motion to compel discovery, ordering Jolie to produce unredacted versions of certain non-attorney communications she had previously shielded under claims of privilege.

“The Court orders Jolie to produce in full, within 45 days of this Order, unredacted versions of the communications exchanged between non-attorneys in the 22 documents identified on Jolie’s February 14, 2025 privilege log with the Document ID numbers set forth in the Appendix to this Order,” the court document read.

A source exclusively tells PEOPLE that Pitt’s team believes “the emails would prove Jolie has been disingenuous since the start regarding her true intentions about selling her share of the business to Stoli.”

Paul Murphy, counsel for Jolie in this matter, shared in a statement with PEOPLE: “We’re disappointed by the court’s interpretation of California’s privilege law. The court’s ruling violates that law, undermines Ms. Jolie’s fundamental right to a fair trial, and represents yet another manifestation of Mr. Pitt’s years-long effort to harass and control her. We will appeal.”

[From People]

The court is making it clear that they’re only compelling the communications between Angelina and non-lawyers, but Angelina’s argument is that she spoke to her business advisor about legal issues and advice she received from lawyers. All that being said, even if Jolie eventually has to turn over these communications, it’s not going to prove what Pitt thinks it will prove. It will show that Angelina went about selling Nouvel methodically and legally to protect her investment in Miraval while simultaneously detaching herself financially from Pitt. THAT is why he’s always been mad. Once she sold Nouvel, he couldn’t control her financially.

Meanwhile, Us Weekly reportedly last week that Ines de Ramon, Brad’s girlfriend of three years, doesn’t want to marry him. LMAO, she’s seen how he treats Angelina and she wants no part of being legally bound to him. An insider told Us Weekly that Ines and Brad are “still going strong and are very committed” to each other, but “Ines has no interest in being in the spotlight, and that is what Brad admired about her when they met. They aren’t interested in getting married and are on the same page about that. [There are] no wedding plans at the moment. They are super happy in this phase of their relationship and not rushing into anything.” I certainly hope Ines is being well-compensated for this.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.