Get ready for the trial of the century

Brad and Ange’s court war goes public

After two years of public mudslinging and behind-the-scenes bickering, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are heading to trial.

The warring A-listers – once soulmates – are officially in checkmate now that their ugly divorce talks have broken down and their lawyers are sharpening their swords for a final battle in court.

“It’s going to be tough,” a well-placed source tells Woman’s Day. “Every tiny detail about their marriage and private lives will be exposed to the public.

“With any glimmer of hope for finalising a divorce settlement fading fast, their lawyers are now gearing up for a court battle in what’s expected to be the most explosive divorce Hollywood has ever seen.”

The main sticking point in the couple’s two-year wrangle is custody of their children, Maddox, 17, Pax, 14, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 12, and 10-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. Angelina wants nothing less than full custody, while Brad is seeking shared custody.

As recently as August, it seemed negotiations were back on track when a judge awarded Brad shared custody of the children until their settlement was finalised. By then, Angelina had already been warned by the courts that she could lose custody altogether if she didn’t make more of an effort to let Brad see his kids.

“But there is no truce,” claims our source. “Ange is extremely hard to deal with.”

“And Ange is once again doing things that are interfering with Brad’s custodial time with the children,” alleges another insider, noting that on the days the Fury actor is supposed to see the kids, they’ve been arriving at his home late.

Legendary Hollywood divorce lawyer Sorrell Trope, who has represented Britney Spears and Nicolas Cage, tells us the trial is shaping up to be one of the most volatile Hollywood has ever seen.

It could take up to a year for a trial date to be set, but Sorrell says, “The case will be completely open to the public and they’ll be given no special treatment. Nothing will be withheld.”

Dirty play

Plenty of dirty laundry has already been aired since the couple’s surprise September 2016 split. Soon after, authorities investigated a report that Brad had been physically abusive to the kids – a charge he was later cleared of.

“Brad believes it was someone from Ange’s team who made the anonymous call and that lie still hurts,” says a family friend.

Maleficent star Angelina, 43, also accused Brad, 54, of failing to pay “meaningful” child support, which he refuted with proof he’d paid $2 million and also loaned her $12 million for a house.

While Brad has so far taken the high road, rumour has it Angelina’s former lawyer Laura Wasser is allegedly set to leak a secret dossier that she compiled over the two years she worked for the Oscarwinning star, before being dumped for new attorney Samantha Bley DeJean.

“The 120-page dossier contains explosive information about Ange’s dirty divorce tactics that could potentially destroy her reputation,” claims a source. “It will reveal what really happened to spark Ange’s shock divorce announcement, and detail how she bullied Brad into giving her initial custody of the kids and made threats to ruin his career.”

Laura is reportedly “putting up a fight against Ange” because she wants to wipe her own reputation clean.

According to the source, “Laura’s threatened to reveal just how dirty Ange wanted to play during her marriage breakdown – which eventually the lawyer refused to do, insisting she’d been pushed too far by the actress.”

Now that every sordid detail of their divorce could be exposed in court, the bitterness between the former lovebirds is only escalating.

As the source explains, “It was hard to imagine their divorce war getting worse. But it just has.”