Angelina JolieandBrad Pitt‘ssplit in September 2016was sudden and shocking — but after an initial flurry of ugly accusations, the couple entered divorce mediation and largely kept their negotiations private.
Now their divorce has exploded into the headlines again as the couple battle overvisitationand child support for kidsMaddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Vivienne and Knox. Here’s a brief history of how things between them got so heated.
Their Shocking SplitJolie and Pitt were last photographed together in public in July 2016, when they stopped into a Jamba Juice store in L.A. with Shiloh.
On Sept. 19, 2016 Joliefiled for divorce. She cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split and asked for physical custody of their six children.
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A sourcetoldPEOPLE at the time that Pitt “made contact” with Maddox, then 15, in the shoulder area, but Maddox wasn’t injured. “There was a parent-child argument which was not handled in the right way and escalated more than it should have,” the source said.
DCFSconcludeditsinvestigationin November. “It was a full and thorough investigation and the determination has been made that no charges should be brought,” a source said at the time, adding that there was no finding of abuse.
An Agreement to Keep the Divorce Private
Custody Issues SurfaceIn the following year-plus, the exes kept the peace and got back to their lives. Jolie continued her advocacy work, produced an Oscar-nominatedanimated movieand resumed acting withMaleficent 2. Pitt starred in and produced numerous movies and started dating, according to source, being seen with MIT professorNeri Oxmanin April.
Then in June 2018, their clash over custody wound up surfacing in public court documents. A judge ruled that Jolie couldlose primary custodyof their kids if she didn’t allow them each to form a “healthy and strong relationship” with Pitt. The judge set a detailed visitation schedule of when Pitt could spend time with the children in London, where Jolie has been filming for the summer, and in L.A. The ruled also granted Pittunsupervised cell phone contactwith the kids.
A spokesperson for Jolie called the public release of the documents “deplorable.”
“From the start, Angelina has been focused only on their health and needs,” thestatementto PEOPLE continued, “which is why it was so important that this last court hearing be conducted privately.”
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Pitt and Jolie in 2014.
A Child-Support SpatJolie’s attorney Samantha Bley DeJean filed papers on Aug. 7 stating that Pitt “has a duty to pay child support. As of present,[Pitt] has paid no meaningful child support since separation.”
In a filing the next day, Pitt’s lawyer Lance Spiegelslammed Jolie’s filingas “unnecessary” and “a thinly-veiled effort to manipulate media coverage.” The filing state that Pitt“loaned” Jolie$8 million to help her purchase her current home and has contributed over $1.3 million “for the benefit of [Jolie] and the minor children.”
Jolie’s lawyer shot back in a statement calling Pitt’s filing “a blatant attempt to obfuscate the truth and distract from the fact that he has not fully met his legal obligations to support the children.” Bley DeJean said Jolie is paying interest on the $8 million loan: “A loan is not, however, child support and to represent it as such is misleading and inaccurate.”
source: people.com
