Over 4 years after Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie confirmed their divorce, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the conditions of their split. A quick rundown: Jolie has been fighting for exclusive custody of the pair’s six children since 2016. While neither she nor Pitt has publicly discussed the episode that led to their breakup, it seems to be their argument onboard their jet, during which Jolie’s camp claims Pitt was verbally and physically violent.
A long-running custody battle appeared to be coming to an end in May when a judge granted Pitt temporary joint custody of the couple’s minor children — but Jolie reportedly appealed the decision, claiming the judge “failed to adequately consider” a section of California law dealing with custody and domestic violence. According to Us Weekly, she filed an appeal, claiming that the court “denied [her] a fair trial by unjustly rejecting her evidence pertinent to the children’s health, safety, and welfare, evidence vital to presenting her case.” The custody struggle over the children and the couple’s shared château is still going on.
Jolie wanted sole custody of their children. When she asked for a divorce from Pitt in September 2016, officially ending their 12-year romance and two years of marriage (now 12). Jolie alleged “irreconcilable differences,” and the media sources were quick to respond. As per the TMZ report from the time, Jolie’s representatives stated she “got ‘fed up’ with Brad’s intake of pot and probably booze, and paired with what she believes is ‘an anger problem,’… believed it became unsafe for the children.” Pitt’s camp shot down the allegations right away, telling the publication that “he’s a caring and devoted father who has never and will never put his children in any harmful circumstance.” “I am very saddened by this,” Pitt said in a statement to People. “But what matters most now is the well-being of our kids.”
The Second District Court of Appeals ruled against Ouderkirk in July, siding with Jolie on the issue of his impartiality. “When taken in conjunction with the evidence supplied concerning Judge Ouderkirk’s prior industry connections with Pitt’s lawyers, an unbiased person, knowing of all the facts, may fairly entertain doubts as to the judge’s ability to be impartial,” the judgment said. “Disqualification is required.”
The dismissal of Ouderkirk threatened to bring Pitt and Jolie’s custody dispute back to square one, and Pitt did not take the decision lying down. His camp took the case to the California Supreme Court earlier this month, claiming that “a minor and unintended administrative error” had now allowed “parties who are losing child custody cases” to “wait and see about the likely result of the case before seeking the judge’s disqualification.” Pitt’s lawyers also said that the judgment “created significant confusion, uncertainty, and instability.”
Another dispute is gaining traction as the custody drama unfolds. Pitt claimed Jolie of trying to sell their $164 million French vineyards, Château Miraval, behind his back in court documents obtained by Hollywood Life on September 21. Pitt married Jolie on the estate in 2014, and it was also there that the public first heard of his brief relationship with German model Nicole Poturalski last year. Anyway, Jolie has been trying to get out of the star wine business for a while now, and in July she petitioned a judge to overturn the injunction that prevents her and Pitt from transferring the money during their separation.
Despite the fact that Pitt and Jolie each possess a 50% ownership in the firm that owns Miraval, Jolie was accused of selling it without involving Pitt, giving him no choice to buy her out or deny the sale. Pitt’s attorneys have filed a complaint in Luxembourg alleging Jolie of “systematic obstruction” of the château, with a source telling Hollywood Life that Jolie is “consistently nasty” and always “trying to bypass the regulations.”
