Not a clean split. Brad Pitt thinks Angelina Jolie has “gone too far” with their divorce and the custody battle over their kids. Jolie and Pitt—who share six children, Maddox, 19, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, John, 14, Vivienne, 12, and Knox, 12—divorced in September 2016 after two years of marriage. The two had been together for more than a decade after Pitt’s divorce from his other ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston.
According to court documents in August, Jolie delayed her divorce from Pitt after she requested that the judge overseeing her and her estranged husband’s case, Judge John W. Ourderkirk, be replaced because of his past relationship with Pitt’s attorney, Anne C. Kiley. In response to Jolie’s request, Pitt’s attorney claimed that the delay will “hurt” their children. “Jolie’s abrupt cry of judicial bias reeks of bad faith and desperation, not to mention careless disregard for the procedural rules intended to root out legitimately conflicted judicial officers,” the court documents read.
Now, a source told Us Weekly that Pitt thinks his estranged wife has “gone way too far” with their divorce and has no choice but “fight back” against her motion. “Brad says Angelina has gone way too far this time,” the insider said. “He’s left with no other option but to dig in and fight back—hard.”
In response to Pitt’s reaction to Jolie’s request for a new judge, the Maleficent star’s attorneys told Us Weekly, “Any delay in these proceedings is due to [Pitt’s team’s] zealous attempt to create an unrecognized special exception for their client’s benefit.”
Jolie’s attorneys also told the Associated Press in a statement that her request for a new judge wasn’t a delay tactic but was a way for her to have a fair trial in her divorce. “As is set forth in the filing, all my client is asking for is a fair trial based on facts, with no special favors extended to either side. The only way litigants can trust the process is for everyone involved to ensure that there is transparency and impartiality,” the statement read.
In an interview with Vogue India in June 2020, Jolie opened up about why she decided to split from Pitt. “I separated for the wellbeing of my family,” she said at the time. “It was the right decision. I continue to focus on their healing. Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds. In fact, they are six very brave, very strong young people.”
Before her relationship with Pitt, Jolie was married Jonny Lee Miller from 1996 to 1999 and Billy Bob Thornton from 2000 to 2003. She also told Harper’s Bazaar in 2019, if it wasn’t for Pitt, she would’ve moved her family abroad. “I would love to live abroad and will do so as soon as my children are 18. Right now I’m having to base where their father chooses to live,” she said at the time. “My body has been through a lot over the past decade, particularly the past four years, and I have both the visible and invisible scars to show for it.”