BRAD’S VICTORY OVER ANGELINA
The war is over! After months of back-and-forth in a nasty battle over their six children, Angelina Jolie finally agrees to give ex-husband Brad Pitt joint physical custody.
Angelina Jolie never saw it coming. When a court-appointed evaluator began assessing the six Jolie-Pitt children in order to make a custody recommendation for Angelina and her ex Brad Pitt, she “was convinced the evaluator would conclude that Brad is an unfit parent who shouldn’t be given joint physical custody,” a source tells Us.
“But the report was completed in late November — and it was extremely favorable to Brad.”
So just days before their custody hearing was set to begin on Dec. 4, Angelina, 43, changed her tune. It was always likely that a trial would be traumatic for the kids, but it took Brad’s glowing review to make Angie back down. After more than two years of fighting Brad, 54, for sole physical and legal custody of their kids — Maddox, 17, Pax, 15, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 12, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 10 — Angelina realized that she could actually lose. On Nov. 30, Angelina’s rep, Samantha Bley DeJean, confirmed to Us that a deal had been struck, although “the details of the agreement are confidential to protect the best interests of the children.” According to the source, “Angelina agreed to a deal that gives Brad joint physical and legal custody of the children.”
For his part, the source says, Brad won’t be commenting: “He just doesn’t have the need to say anything. He got what he wanted after a very long and protracted process.” Now, instead of seeing his children every other day — a temporary plan put into place by a judge over the summer after months of Angelina trying to restrict the kids’ interaction with their dad — Brad will get to be with his children for weeks at a time, just like their mom. “The plan calls for Angie to have the kids for half the time, then for Brad to have them the other half,” explains the source. “He’ll regularly have the kids overnight at his house for the first time since the divorce proceedings began.”
TOGETHER AGAIN
Another huge change for Brad? No more monitored visitation, says the source. Brad’s interactions with his children have been chaperoned ever since the notorious September 2016 plane incident when an inebriated Brad — who’s since gotten sober — argued and reportedly got physical with one of his older sons, leading Angelina to file for divorce and the LA County Department of Children and Family Services to launch a child-welfare investigation. (Brad was cleared of any wrongdoing.) “This is huge for Brad,” says the source, “because he can finally resume just being a dad without the presence of monitors.”
And after years of relying on lawyers to deliver messages, Brad and Angie now communicate directly to coordinate the kids’ schedules, says the source, using the app Our Family Wizard. While the agreement still needs to be finalized, Brad is ready to spend time with his kids, says the insider: “It was a long and difficult road. But he never gave up.”