Angelina Jolie slams Brad Pitt in new court filing
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s divorce battle continues.
The 41-year-old actress slams Pitt in new court documents obtained by ET on Wednesday, saying that her estranged husband is insistent on sealing divorce docs pertaining to custody because he’s “terrified that the public will learn the truth.”
While Jolie agrees that sealing custody-related records would be in the best interest of the couple’s six children -- Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8 -- the new court documents, filed by the star’s attorney, Laura Wasser, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, slam the recent motion filed by Pitt’s lawyers to seal information related to their temporary custody agreement.
Pitt’s attorney, Lance Spiegel, filed court docs supporting Pitt’s request to have custody documents sealed on Dec. 21, after his request for an emergency hearing about the case was denied weeks earlier.
In his motion, Pitt accused Jolie of disregarding their children’s “privacy rights when she believes it may benefit her,” claiming that the actress “exposed the children by making public the names of their therapist and other mental health professionals.”
Jolie “apparently has no self-regulation mechanism to preclude sensitive information from being placed in the public record,” Pitt’s documents stated, “or she has other motives pursuant to which she seeks to disseminate information in this proceeding which will be immediately made public, where the children can access it or where people in the general public will have access to it for their own uses.”
In Jolie’s filing on Tuesday, the actress’ lawyer accuses Pitt of trying to “deflect from [his] own role in the media storm which has engulfed the parties’ children.”
“There is little doubt that [Pitt] would prefer to keep the entire case private, particularly given the detailed investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dept. of Children and Family Services into allegation of abuse,” the documents state.
Though Pitt has been cleared by both the FBI and Department of Children and Family Services after investigations following an incident during a family flight home from Europe in September, a source tells ET that “it doesn’t mean he didn’t do anything wrong.”
“The kids are clearly traumatized, and Angelina has been protecting the kids by not revealing what really happened on the plane,” the source says. “The interest since the onset of this has not changed, and all along that has been to protect the well-being of the children.”
A source close to Pitt, meanwhile, tells ET that Jolie cooperated with both investigations. “Clearly her claims were considered legitimate enough to impact those conclusions. And if she held back information which, we don’t believe that she did, then isn’t she then not representing the best interests of her children by holding it back?”
“Thankfully after four months of on record statements, leaks and unnecessary and intrusive filings she is coming around to realizing that confidentiality is actually in the best interests of her children and family,” the source adds.
Jolie was granted full custody of all six kids on Dec. 2. Court documents stated that Pitt would continue to have agreed-upon therapeutic visits with his kids, as determined by the family’s therapist, who “shall at times consider the best interests of the minor children.”
See more on Pitt and Jolie’s divorce battle in the video below.
Additional reporting by Rande Iaboni and Carolyn Greenspan
