Angelina Jolie claims Brad Pitt hasn't paid child support, plans to seek court order
It has been nearly two years after Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt and a resolution still seems far, far away.
Court papers filed by Jolie on Tuesday and obtained by NBC News show that things are as contentious as ever. In the documents, the Maleficent star claimed that her estranged husband hasn’t paid any “meaningful” child support for their six children — Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne — in a year and a half, and she plans to seek a court order make him pay.
“[Pitt] has a duty to pay child support,” Jolie’s attorney Samantha Bley DeJean wrote in a two-page brief filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. “As of present, [Pitt] has paid no meaningful child support since separation.
“Given the informal arrangements around the payment of the children’s expenses have not been regularly sustained by [Pitt] for over a year and a half, [Jolie] intends to file [a request for a court order] for the establishment of a retroactive child support order.” The filing did not define or elaborate on what is meant by “meaningful” support.
Reps for Pitt and Jolie have not yet responded to Yahoo Entertainment’s requests for comment. However, a source familiar with the situation tells Yahoo Entertainment, “Brad fulfills his commitments.” TMZ seemed to have proof of that. The outlet obtained legal documents stating that not only has he given her more than $1.3 million in child support in that time period, but he also loaned her $8 million for her new home. Meanwhile, a Jolie rep told People that her new filing is “to provide closure to the marriage in a way that clears a path toward the next stage of their lives and allows her and Brad to recommit as devoted co-parents to their children.”
Considering they are two of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood, the fact that they are publicly fighting over money just goes to show where things are between them at this moment. Their decision to continue to co-own their winery aside, they’ve been adversaries from the start. In June, a judge stepped in to prevent parental alienation, saying Jolie could be in danger of losing primary custody of the children if she doesn’t take steps to improve their relationship with Pitt. The court order stipulated gave the actor more time with their five younger children, putting a visitation schedule in place as well as unrestricted phone access and other things to improve the bond between them. (Maddox, who turned 17 over the weekend, does not have to abide by the same rules because he is over 16. He is also the one who got into an altercation with his adopted father aboard a plane, which resulted in Jolie filing for divorce. Pitt quit drinking after the blowup.)
Over the weekend there were reports that Jolie was having trouble with her legal team, headed by Hollywood’s go-to divorce attorney Laura Wasser. TMZ claimed that Wasser was quitting after butting heads with the actress. While a rep for Jolie denied that Wasser was quitting to People — saying Jolie was merely expanding her legal team as the case entered a “new phase” — a source told the magazine there is currently considerable tension between Jolie and Wasser.
The attorney handling today’s filing is from the San Francisco-based firm of Bley and Bley. Her bio says she “specializes in all aspects of marital dissolutions, particularly complex family law trial work.”
Meanwhile, a new report from E! News backs up what this new legal filing shows, which is that “Brad and Angelina are not even close to settling their divorce,” a source told the website. “They are so hung up on dealing with the custody issues that they haven’t even exchanged any financial documents yet, which is routine in divorces and one of the first steps people take in the filing process.”
The person added, “There will be no settlement or resolution anytime soon. They are kind of at an impasse at this point because the focus has been on custody; nothing else has been hashed out yet.”
Brad and Angelina famously fell in love on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2005, when he was still married to Jennifer Aniston. He adopted her son Maddox and daughter Zahara and they went on to adopt once more, Pax, and have three children of their own, Shiloh and twins Vivienne and Knox. They didn’t marry until August 2014, with their kids playing big roles in the ceremony, only to file for divorce just over two years later, in September 2016.
In other words, for nearly two years, they’ve been trying to end a marriage that lasted a minute over two years … and there’s no resolution in sight.
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