Angelina Jolie was once known as a love ’em and leave’ em type. But she can ‘t seem to let Brady’s go.
The two were back in court this month – with Jolie, who filed for divorce in 2016, again as Maleficent came down for seemingly dragging things out. People who know both actors are envious of their motives.
“The longer she does this, the more harm she does to the children,” one acquaintance told The Post. ‘This is a game she’s playing. She has the kids even more of the time than he does and they try to keep that as long as possible. ‘
Sources familiar with the family say that while maintaining control over the children is very important to Jolie, she has feelings of love-hate for Pitt.
‘At some level, she does not want this [the divorce] to end, ”said one source. “They’re trying to keep up.”
Insiders told The Post that Jolie’s maneuvering only served to burn Pitt’s “good boy” image – and help keep the focus of some skeletons in his own closet.
Jolie, 45, lobbed her last grenade just as the pair of War of the Roses appeared to be falling. Pitt, 56, was recently seen riding on his motorcycle to visit her children on the estate of the ‘Los Angeles’ actress and the two were told they would get along better with her.
Jolie asked that the private judge in her divorce throw out the case because he was too sociable with Pitt’s lawyers and did other matters with her. But insiders say there are very few private LA judges working for clients with high net worth and it is a no-brainer that Judge John W. Ouderkirk would have reprimanded other clients by Pitt’s attorney.
Team Pitt retaliated with court documents showing that Ouderkirk, who filed for the couple’s marriage in 2014, had disclosed those allegations and that Jolie was aware of them. Ouderkirk said he had no bias in the case and refused to resign. Now a court will decide if he will remove him.
“The judge accuses her legal team-mate Mary of delaying the trial,” a lawyer close to the case said. “
Pitt’s lawyers said in court documents that Jolie’s movement “smelled of mistrust and despair.” She added that the couple’s six children “are the individuals most hurt by Jolie’s transparent tactical gambit,” as “they remain dismissed because of a resolution on these issues with custody.”
According to the Jolie camp, the actress, who is known for her passion – whether for work, philanthropy or, in the past, men (she is not currently dating) – is intensely focused on one thing: her children .
They add that, despite the way the public may look, “She’s the one who filed for divorce,” said one person close to Jolie. “There is no one more than her who wants it done.”
Sources from Jolie told The Post that the children are still in need of therapy after the private jet flight in 2016, when Pitt was told she was evicting her son Maddox, following Jolie’s request to divorce days later. A date for the custody case has been set for new month, but may be postponed.
The children range in age from 19-year-old Maddox, who, a source said, now has “no real relationship” with his father, to twins Vivienne and Knox, 12. Pax is 16, Zahara is 15 and Shiloh is 14.
“Brad spends time with the kids, but there are still boundaries and that’s the frustrating part,” said a source with knowledge of the situation. ‘In California there is conservation [typically] 50-50. . . But in reality, Brad does not have 50 percent retention. ”
When the pandemic erupted, Maddox returned to Jolie’s $ 24 million home from his biotechnology studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, and will report online this fall. Pax attended Notre Dame HS in Sherman Oaks, Calif., The school this fall will presumably be a mix of online and personal coursework. Some of the other children are homeschooled.
The brother remained in lockdown with Angelina while Pitt flew in two weeks ago with his parents, brother, sister and their families to his Santa Barbara estate to celebrate Mother Jane’s 80th birthday.
Meanwhile, sources say Jolie is hurting her reputation by leaving her ex as a victim as Pitt is not an angel.
“I’m not saying she’s perfect, as the healthiest person around,” said a source who worked with Pitt and Jolie when they were together. ‘But he had the pants in that relationship. . . He’s much smarter than he lets through. That young, good young image is just an image. ”
Somehow Jolie repeats by dragging things out and sticking to her ex what people in Pitt’s past say he did to her.
Lighting designer Odile Soudant is still embroiled in lawsuits with Pitt more than 10 years after he asked her to create a multimillion-dollar design at Chateau Miraval, the French chateau he and Jolie bought. Soudant told The Post that she worked for four years before Pitt pulled the plug without explanation, and made her bankrupt by not paying her.
Pitt’s site claims he stopped the payment because contractors carrying out the work inflated prices, but a French court said Soudant was not at fault. She was awarded about $ 750,000 in damages in 2017, but the fight is not over. Soudant said Pitt hired someone from her team to complete the job – and Pitt has since claimed through his attorney that the design ideas were his own. Soudant has filed a second case in France against Pitt, requesting that she receive official artistic credit. The case is ongoing.
“He took my soul, he took my heart,” Soudant told The Post. “I cry for myself and I cry for the people of New Orleans.”
Homeowners in New Orleans – where Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation built more than 120 low-cost homes for residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina only to see something collapse or fill it with mold – have filed a 2018 action- case against MIR in.
At some level, Angelina does not want to [the divorce from Brad Pitt] end. They try to keep up.
– Source familiar with the Jolie and Pitt family
They hope a hearing scheduled for Sept. 3 will force Pitt to account.
“It’s all defended, denied and delayed,” Ron Austin, a homeowners’ lawyer, told The Post. “We hope next month’s hearing will force Brad Pitt and Make It Right to answer questions they have so far ducked and dragged.”
The Rev. Charles Duplessis, who has helped MIR homeowners, told The Post that the media left the Make It Right disaster after “a few reporters came here, wrote about it as if it was just one thing and forgot about us.
“People here are still hurting and I want justice for them. Some of them had to leave the houses, but they are still expected to pay mortgages and no one makes it, “said Duplessis, whose sister-in-law had to inspect her MIR house because of mold.” Brad Pitt … should not leave these people “He should do really well.”
That should also be a goal of both Pitt and Jolie when it comes to ending their long legal war.
“Both parents want to spend so much time with the children, but under the current regime, it seems to be significant weight for their time spent with them,” a Pitt source told The Post. “Hopefully it will be more honest in the future.”
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