Angelina: EX-WIFE FROM HELL
Angelina Jolie’s obsession with winning sole custody of her children with Brad Pitt leads her down a dark path
Her lawyer was threatening to quit. The bombshell claim was made on Aug. 4 when TMZ reported that Angelina Jolie has been so venomous and desperate to destroy her kids’ relationship with their father, Brad Pitt, as their bitter custody war rages on that her highpowered and well-respected lawyer, Laura Wasser, wanted out. Angelina’s spokesperson was quick to deny that Laura is quitting “now or in the future,” but additional reports then revealed Angelina’s hired another law firm to help fight the custody case. “Laura and Angie are butting heads,” an insider confirms to In Touch. “It’s not a good situation.”
Angelina is unraveling. She and Laura — who has a reputation in Hollywood circles for negotiating peaceful co-parenting settlements — “had a huge blowup over the basics of the case, like doing what’s right and putting the children first,” says the insider. “Angie’s losing her mind. She’s
so filled with anger and hatred toward Brad that it’s affecting her decision-making — so much so that there’s been a major shake-up with her legal team.” Nearly two years after Angelina, 43, left Brad, 54, filed for divorce and launched her bid for sole legal and physical custody, they are, a friend tells In Touch, “further away than ever on signing off on the divorce.” Angelina, adds the friend, “has become the ex-wife from hell. She is losing this custody battle, and she knows it. She’s snapped. She can’t bear the thought of Brad getting the kids. And he is going to get them.”
DISTURBING DRAMA
That, a source with knowledge of the case tells In Touch, would be “Angelina’s worst nightmare.” Her goal from day one has been to win the children by any means necessary, while Brad now wants emergency custody. “She’s obsessed,” says the insider. “She wants the kids all to herself, and she’s being super vindictive. She’s losing her grip on reality. Her anger and selfishness are getting the better of her. She’s even called people in her camp at 2 a.m. to rant.” Brad was the parent initially painted as the bad guy when he endured a lengthy Department of Children and Family Services investigation in the immediate wake of her
divorce filing after a dramatic alcohol-fueled incident on the family’s private plane involving one of their older kids. He’s since been cleared of any wrongdoing, quit drinking and embraced therapy. Now, says the insider, “Brad no longer looks like the bad parent here — Angelina does. And it’s going to cost her dearly.”
A turning point came earlier this summer. Angelina, who sources have previously told In Touch has kept the kids from Brad and canceled their visits to see him at the last minute without explanation, moved the kids with her from LA to England, where she was shooting Maleficent 2. “She’d been really controlling about how the kids interacted with Brad, so a judge put safeguards in place to make sure she didn’t alienate them any further from their father,” a source tells In Touch. In June, an LA Superior Court judge ordered Angelina to help repair her children’s relationship with their father — or risk losing the kids.
In the ruling, the judge awarded Brad significant blocks of custody of Pax, 14, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 12, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 10. (Because of his age, their eldest son, 17-year-old Maddox, can make his own decisions on whom he spends time with.) The judge also made it clear that “not having a relationship with their father is harmful to them” and insisted that the kids get unrestricted and unmonitored phone and text access to Brad ahead of the next scheduled custody hearing on Aug. 13. “Angie,” says the source with knowledge of the case, “will hit the roof if the judge sides with Brad again and grants him even more access to the kids.”
FIGHTING BACK
Ever since Angelina’s bombshell divorce filing, Brad’s made all the right moves. “He withstood all of the negative publicity, much of which came from Angelina’s team,” says the source. “He did everything right when it came to family counselors, supervised visitation, abbreviated quality time with the kids and family court demands. He transformed into a sober, healthy and ultra-responsible dad. Yet Angelina has tried again and again to cut him out of their kids’ lives. She can’t fathom that people think Brad should have equal time.” Brad won’t cave. “He’s more than willing to fight her in court,” adds the source. “She’s underestimated him — he’ll do anything to be reunited with his kids.”
At their next custody hearing, the judge wants to see progress. “The judge is looking for [the parents] to be doing things they might
otherwise not want to do but do anyway in the best interests of their children, and it seems as though Angelina is just saying, ‘No, I’m not going to do it,’” says Woodland Hills, Calif., family law attorney Goldie Schon, who doesn’t represent the Jolie-pitts. “She’s allowing her anger to take over. She needs to do some self-reflection and therapy for herself, because her own insecurities and issues are what appear to be causing her to now hurt her children, who need both of their parents.”
Angelina has sought help for her mental health issues in the past. In 2001, she told Larry King she’d suffered from depression and was told “you’re having a nervous breakdown” after she started “going crazy” because she thought she’d lost Billy Bob Thornton shortly before their 2000 wedding and “She used to look was admitted to the UCLA Neuropsychiatric really healthy,” says a Greenwich, Institute on a three-day hold. The same year, Conn., local who she told Rolling Stone that she at one point saw her on considered using a knife or pills Sept. to 4. end “Now her own life, then realized, “I was she’s going so to skinny have and smokes all to hire someone to kill me.” She said she even the time.” met with a hit man before changing her mind over the next month.
RISKING IT ALL Now she needs to “put the kids first,” says the insider. “Angie’s blind rage about Brad has clearly clouded her thinking about doing the right thing. Her priorities have shifted to the point that it’s all about destroying Brad, not about doing what’s best for her children. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and now she’s in danger of losing the kids.” ◼