Brad Pitt vows to fight Angelina Jolie for custody of their six children

Jolie asked for physical custody of Maddox, 15, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and eight-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox, in divorce documents filed on Monday. She also asked that her husband of two years be granted visitation.

But sources tell People Pitt will fight hard, saying sole physical custody “for either of them doesn’t seem like what’s best for the children.”

“Brad thinks Angelina is a great mother,” the insider says. “But he is also a great father. There is no way he is going to be absent for any part of his kids’ lives.”

Moving trucks were seen arriving at the stars’ Hollywood compound on Wednesday, with police officers working to keep the swarming paparazzi at bay.

In the 12 hours after the story broke, rumours about Pitt’s infidelity, drug taking and bad parenting swirled.

The immediate explanation was Pitt had cheated on Jolie with his co-star, Marion Cotillard, while filming the World War II drama, Allied.

The story, broken by the New York Post, was that Jolie had hired a private eye to spy on the pair. “She felt that he was fooling around ... on the set, and it turns out he was. And that was the final straw,” a source said. Other publications said Pitt wasn’t being a good father.

These claims, reported by TMZ, were that Jolie was sick of him drinking and smoking dope, and was concerned about anger issues.

By late yesterday, TMZ reported Pitt was “furious” that Jolie had both publicly filed for divorce and “spun rumours”.
Amid reports Jolie’s PR team has created a war room in a Los Angeles home as she prepares to take on Pitt, he told friends not to say anything negative about her.
 

SPLIT CAME AFTER ‘ONE SHOCKING INCIDENT’

The PR machines of both camps are furiously at work after Jolie claimed control of the narrative from the outset by putting her story in court documents: she was splitting from Pitt for “irreconcilable differences”.

Sources claim Jolie decided to leave her partner of 12 years after “one shocking incident”, which has not been revealed.

“The final divorce decision was only made one week ago. An incident took place and prompted [Angelina] to act and file,” an insider told Us Weekly. “She still says Brad is the love of her life, and the decision has weighed heavy on her heart. Her priority now is the children.”

The family life of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

The source also said Pitt discovered his wife had started divorce proceedings on the day she filed the papers and a day before news of the split broke.

While many have speculated that Pitt’s Allied co-star Marion Cotillard played a part in the split, a source said, “Marion was not the reason for the divorce.”

Cotillard is reportedly pregnant with her second child. There are no suggestions the baby is Pitt’s.

TMZ’s Harvey Levin also said the demise of Brangelina had nothing to do with the French actress.

“Something happened last week where she (Jolie) reached a breaking point and that’s why on Thursday she separated from him, on Friday she went to a lawyer, on Monday they had filed for divorce, it happened like that,” Levin said in a Facebook video. “Something happened last week that pushed her over the line.”

He also said: “This is about Brad Pitt, weed, alcohol, his anger problems and how the combination of those things affect his interaction with their six kids.

“And that’s what this is about, it’s not about a third person, it’s not about another woman. It is about the kids and that’s why she did it, that’s why she did it abruptly.”

Jolie files for divorce over kids

ANISTON DENIES THEROUX SPLIT

Much has been made of Jennifer Aniston’s supposed reaction to news of her ex-husband’s split from Jolie. When told of Pitt’s divorce by friends, Aniston reportedly said: “Yeah, that’s karma for you!”

Pitt and Jolie reportedly fell in love on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith, while Pitt and Aniston were still married.

Now Aniston’s camp has been forced to deny rumours she has separated from husband Justin Theroux. “The story is just another fabrication with no relationship to reality,” spokespeople for the former Friends star told The Sun.

According to InTouch Weekly, Aniston wanted to call it quits over Theroux’s relationship with his ex-girlfriend Heidi Bivens. Insiders claimed the actor had been caught laughing on the phone with his former partner of 14 years.

“They’ve stayed in contact ever since they broke up,” a source told the American magazine. “Jen hates it. She let him have it, saying it was the last time she ever wanted to hear about that woman.”

The source added: “Justin and Heidi are friends, and that’s not going to change.”

JOLIE, PITT SEPARATED AT WAX MUSEUM

London’s Madame Tussauds museum has separated its wax figure replicas of Jolie and Pitt after the Hollywood power couple announced their split.

“We reacted quickly to yesterday’s news of the separation of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and their plans to divorce by mirroring the separation in the attraction,” a Madame Tussauds spokesperson said.

“The couple’s wax figures, which were launched in 2013, have been split up and are now featured at a respectful distance from each other. Angelina is keeping Nicole Kidman company and Brad Pitt is with his several time co-star Morgan Freeman.”

The waxworks were unveiled to honour Pitt’s 50th birthday in 2013, replacing the original models which came out in 2005.

THE PERFECT FACADE COMES CRASHING DOWN

From the outside, they were a Hollywood power couple, traversing the world as a philanthropic glamour pair, moving seamlessly from movie sets and red carpets to refugee camps and disaster zones.

But the perfect facade has come crashing down, and the couple’s marriage could end in a fierce and public PR war.

Jolie and Pitt made their public debut as a married couple in Australia in Nov­ember 2014 at the Sydney premiere of Unbro­ken. Their first fight as a married couple also went public when they were snapped arguing on a hotel balcony.

They had cemented their 10-year relationship by exchanging wedding vows in France three months prior.

A decade earlier, the pair first captured the world’s attention after meeting on the set of film Mr & Mrs Smith, while Pitt was reportedly still married to Jennifer Aniston.

Since 2005, they morphed into the ideal of an American philanthropic power couple with their patchwork family of six children — three adopted — and their charity work.

They started their own charity foundation, and were famously involved in rebuilding homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Jolie started working for the United Nations in 2000 and became a special envoy for the UN high commissioner for refugees in 2012. She also raised awareness about breast and ovarian cancer when she opted to have a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 because she carried the cancer-causing BRCA gene.
 

News of the split of one of Tinseltown’s most glamorous couples reverberated around the globe, with headlines ­lamenting “the day love died”.

Just hours after news broke, Pitt released a statement in which he begged for privacy.

“I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the wellbeing of our kids,” he said. “I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time.”

The Maleficent actress’s lawyer Robert Offer said in a statement: “This decision was made for the health of the family. She will not be commenting, and asks that the family be given its privacy at this time.”

Jolie also released a second statement, this time through her manager, Geyer Kosinski: “Angelina will always do what’s in the best interest to protect her children. She appreciates everyone’s understanding of their need for privacy at this time.”