With tension escalating, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are ‘no longer in family therapy’ ahead of the trial to determine custody of their children. The former couple is at odds over how much time each gets with their six kids. Known as Brangelina, the duo broke up in September 2016. 45-year-old Jolie filed for divorce and sought custody of their brood after an alleged altercation between Pitt and son Maddox on board a private jet. 56-year-old Pitt is seeking joint legal and physical custody.
At the end of last month, Pitt brought rumoured girlfriend German model Nicole Poturalski, 27 to Château Miraval in the south of France. The holiday coincided with what would have been Pitt and Jolie’s sixth wedding anniversary. The former couple married at the château on August 24, 2014. A private judge is set to adjudicate on unresolved child custody and support issues at a trial in LA in October.
According to UsWeekly, the former couple’s relationship has turned so sour to the point that they stopped family therapy ahead of a custody trial slated for next month. ‘Tensions have escalated between Brad and Angelina, with family therapy no longer taking place,’ an insider exclusively told Us Weekly. The former couple had appeared to reach a cordial understanding of co-parenting their children. Pitt was seen leaving Pitt’s LA home in June after spending time with the kids.
UsWeekly reported that the former pair is now at odds again over how much time they get with Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and 12-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. Maddox, 19 who is the eldest child gets to choose his timetable and is said to no longer have any contact with his father.
‘Brad wants 50/50 joint physical and legal custody of the kids. Angelina has been unagreeable to those terms,’ an insider told UsWeekly. The insider continued, saying that Jolie ‘will only agree to talk about an agreement if the home base for the children isn’t Los Angeles. The younger kids are in school in Los Angeles, which Angelina has always been opposed to.’
It was previously reported that the Maleficent actress planned to relocate to the UK and base the children with her there. DailyMail.com sought comment from both the reps for Pitt and Jolie. Pitt and Jolie who was named Brangelina during their time together split up in September 2016 when Jolie filed for divorce after an incident aboard a private jet involving son Maddox and Pitt.
The former couple met on the set of movie Mr. & Mrs Smith which was released in June 2005. Before the movie premiered, Pitt and then-wife Jennifer Aniston had announced that they were parting ways after five years of marriage and the Friends star subsequently filing for divorce in March 2005. Jolie confirmed her relationship with Pitt, announcing that she was pregnant with his child on January 11, 2006. In May 2006, their daughter Shiloh was born in Namibia. Two years later, in July 2008, the couple welcomed twins Knox and Vivienne who were born in Nice, in the south of France.
Pitt officially adopted Jolie’s adopted son Maddox, born in Cambodia in early 2006 and daughter Zahara born in Ethiopia. The couple adopted son Pax from Vietnam in 2007. Jolie and Pitt got married at Château Miraval, their estate in Provence, on August 23, 2015, saying at that time that they had made their union legal for the sake of their children. Five years later, the couple who were declared legally single last year has not been able to finalise terms regarding custody and support of the children.
It was said that the former couple had renewed fiction when Pitt visited Château Miraval at the end of August with a rumoured new girlfriend, Nicole Poturalski. In 2011, Jolie and Pitt purchased the estate including the Château and vineyard for USD 60 million after leasing it for three years.’ Taking Nicole to Miraval on their former wedding anniversary, Brad knows exactly what he is doing and the reaction it’s going to get from Angelina,’ a source told UsWeekly at the time. ‘He just doesn’t care if Angelina is going to lash out. He expects she will.’
According to The Mirror, Jolie was ‘furious and utterly stunned Brad could stoop this low.’ Pitt and Poturalski, who is married with a son, were spotted arriving in the south of France on a private jet. An insider told OK! magazine, ‘They were kissing and Brad was being super attentive to her.’ ‘He was in a semi-public place but didn’t seem to mind people seeing him. She’s a real beauty and obviously a lot younger than him.’ It has been reported that the couple may have been dating for the most of a year as they both attended Kanye West’ opera Nebuchadnezzar at the Hollywood Bowl in November 2019.
Nicole Poturalski is currently signed to Next Management in LA and A Management in Germany. She is married to Berlin-based restaurateur Roland Mary, 68 with whom she is allegedly in an open relationship. In the meantime, a trial has been scheduled for October in LA where a judge will adjudicate on the child custody and support issues that remain unresolved between Jolie and Pitt.
Retired Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk had presided over their marriage in 2014 and the couple previously signed off the judge to oversee the proceedings. In August, Jolie requested that he to be removed from the case, claiming that she feared he would be biased against her because he had failed to disclose an existing relationship between himself and Pitt’s lawyers.
Pitt’s legal team accused Jolie of making a ‘transparently tactical gambit’ to delay matters, adding that it will be their children who are ‘hurt most’ by the hold-up. The judge denied Jolie’s request that he recuse himself, stating that he is within his rights to continue working as the celebrity divorce continues to drag on and declaring that he can and will be impartial. In September 2016, the fairytale romance between the couple ended.
Vanity Fair reported about an alleged altercation between Pitt and Maddox aboard a private jet that was headed from Nice, France to Los Angeles, California. Upon landing, Jolie ‘kicked him out’. Pitt was cleared of any wrongdoing but the stage had been set for a very acrimonious divorce. Jolie filed legal documents immediately and sought custody of the six children. Pitt countered by asking for joint custody.
The divorce battle exploded in public in August 2018, with Jolie accusing Pitt of being a deadbeat dad and Pitt revealing he has paid millions of dollars to the actress including money to buy a new home in LA. A judge overseeing the case previously cautioned Jolie for allegedly not helping the kids have a relationship with Pitt and threatening to reduce her time with them. The two reached an interim custody agreement and have engaged in family therapy since then as they seek to find a way forward. /TISG