Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been trying to keep this ugly divorce as private as possible, but now their contentious battle has spilled out into the open.
Angelina can prove that Brad is an unfit father, because he hasn’t paid child support. Brad replied by slamming that as “media manipulation.”
Now, Angelina is firing back … and spilling a whole lot of details about his failings as a father.
Angelina’s attorney, Samantha Bley DeJean, tells People that Angelina’s grievances against Brad Pitt are legit.
She says that Angelina’s court filing “was both legally appropriate and factually accurate in all respects.”
“What has been filed by Brad’s side today is a blatant attempt to obfuscate the truth,” DeJean states.
“And,” DeJean continues, Brad wishes to “distract from the fact that he has not fully met his legal obligations to support the children.”
In other words, she’s saying that Brad doesn’t want the world to know that he’s a deadbeat dad.
So … what’s this business about a loan? As you may recall, Brad countered that he had loaned her $ 8 million to purchase a home.
“Following the incident of September 2016,” DeJean explains. “Angelina and the children needed to move from the family home, which Brad chose to keep, including all of its contents.”
The incident being the one that took place on a plane and led to Brad Pitt being investigated for child-abuse.
If Brad wasn’t going to leave, then Angelina had not real choice but to move out.
This was when, DeJean says, Brad was “asked to assist in the expense of a new home for Angelina.”
Brad offered assistance … after a fashion.
“Instead,” DeJean says. “He loaned Angelina money, for which he is charging her interest on a payment plan.”
Yikes. While interest on $ 8 million is definitely something that Angelina can afford, she might as well have gone to a bank for the loan instead of to the man who claimed the family home for himself.
DeJean affirms that Angelina fully intends to “honor that loa.n”
However, DeJean makes clear: “A loan is not, however, child support and to represent it as such is misleading and inaccurate.”
So it’s not like Angelina is trying to weasel out of paying interest on the loan.
Instead, DeJean says, she “is asking Brad to pay 50% of the children’s expenses.” You know, his job as a parent.
Unfortunately, DeJean says, Brad “has not” been contributing his fair share.
“Angelina has had to shoulder the majority of those without his contribution for the past two years,” DeJean says.
DeJean reminds everyone: “Child support is not optional in California.”
“Typically,” DeJean says. “A father of means would pay these expenses voluntarily”
A good father would, anyway. But we suppose that a good father wouldn’t do whatever Brad did on that plane to end his marriage and get himself investigated by the FBI, either.
DeJean says that a normal father with the cash would already be paying “without the need for a request or court order.”
This might be a good time to mention that, according to the internet, Brad Pitt’s net worth is nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.
DeJean concludes: “We are hopeful that this can be resolved without further delay or posturing.”
Divorces can be messy — especially ones that are triggered by an incident of alleged child-abuse rather than by a marriage slowly succumbing to entropy.
Angelina and Brad have tried to keep the details of their divorce quiet for a host of reasons.
We suppose that it’s no surprise that what’s making them lash out at each other publicly is money.
Just because Angelina is a wealthy woman who can afford to single-handedly provide for all of her children does not mean that she should have to.
We hope that both parties are doing their part for their children, as required by the law and also by basic decency.