Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt custody battle: Actor accused of wanting to hide facts from the public
Last Christmas was the first in years that Brad Pitt had to spend away from Angelina Jolie and their kids. The 41-year-old actress filed for divorce in September 2016 and her estranged spouse has requested that all court documents covering the custody battle be sealed.
When the divorce was made public last year, Angelina’s custody wishes were released as well. She had wanted sole custody of her children, but understood that Maddox (15), Pax (13), Zahara (11), Shiloh (10) and twins Vivienne and Knox (8) would still need to see their father. At the time, the court granted Brad with visitation rights.
People Magazine obtained the earlier court documents, which indicated that Angelina’s lawyer, Laura Wasser, claimed Brad had seen the younger kids at least once a week since Oct. 8. And as agreed upon by their voluntary custody agreement, a therapist was present during each visit. The therapist was jointly agreed upon by both parties and had the authority to dictate the time and frequency of the visits.
The schedule stated that Brad would have five-hour weekly visits until the end of January. However, the therapist has the authority to increase or decrease these visits depending on the feelings and progress of the children. All these things were outfitted in the temporary custody plan that was suggested by the Department of Children & Family Services, which both actors agreed to.
Sometime in November, however, Brad requested for more visitation time, but Angelina’s team had argued that it was “premature to end therapeutic monitoring” so early after the setup was agreed on. A few days after both parties and their respective counsels met to discuss the same, Brad had requested that all custody-related documents be sealed, and Angelina agreed to the rquest.
However, new court documents that were acquired by Entertainment Tonight state Angelina is doubtful about Brad’s intentions for wanting to seal the documents in the first place. The 51-year-old actor is reportedly “terrified that the public will learn the truth.” Brad’s official request stated he wanted privacy for the betterment of their children.
"There is little doubt that [Pitt] would prefer to keep the entire case private, particularly given the detailed investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dept. of Children and Family Services into allegation of abuse," the publication quoted the court documents. Brad had been investigated by both the FBI and the DCFS following claims of abuse from an incident on a private plane, but both parties dropped the charges after their respective investigations.
A source of the publication said, however, that while official charges have been dropped, this does not mean Brad was completely innocent. “It doesn’t mean he didn’t do anything wrong,” the source said. “The kids are clearly traumatised, and Angelina has been protecting the kids by not revealing what really happened on the plane.”
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