Angelina Jolie Provides Testimony About Brad Pitt’s Alleged Domestic Violence
When celebrities go through a divorce, every step they take make the headlines, just like the one above. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are in the midst of what seems like a never-ending divorce. As you might be aware, their divorce has been ongoing for the past five years, and they have yet to settle on custody. Jolie and Pitt have been working on a custody arrangement for their six children since 2019. “Jolie and Pitt were working toward a “amicable” coparenting relationship, according to the Post, and had been using the OurFamilyWizard app “to manage the kids’ schedules.” Pitt was looking to establish joint physical and legal custody of the children in 2020. But there is no resolution in sight. Now, Jolie has accused Pitt of domestic abuse and is authorizing their six children to testify in court during their divorce proceedings. The question now is, “Why is this divorce taking 5 years to finalize?” The bigger question is, “how can this situation be avoided?”
There are different paths your divorce can follow. One is grounded in anger and revenge, while the other is focused more on closing one chapter of your life and beginning a new one. Hatred, anger, and revenge will not get you the results you want. It will, however, result in a stressful, expensive, and unnecessarily prolonged process. Long and protracted custody battles will serve only to benefit the attorneys, not you or your children.
Co-parenting is important to demonstrate to your children that you are capable of maintaining a united front and that you will put their emotional and physical well-being first, even though you may no longer be a single family unit. The best route is to work together with your partner and have a discussion about developing a schedule that works for both you and your kids. You should look forward into the future to achieve this amicable relationship with your partner. Thinking of your children and the future will help you get through this and avoid getting stuck in the past.
You and your partner will have a lot of conflicts and differences that may seem impossible to resolve, and quite frankly, they don’t all need to be resolved at once. But, each step of the divorce process is just that — a step in the direction of that new chapter of your life.
In Brad and Angelina’s case, it seems this has not been so simple to implement. Now that Angelina is alleging domestic violence, it may not be possible to have an amicable conversation to resolve their outstanding issues. The impact of domestic abuse on children and on divorce proceedings should never be discounted. Nor is domestic violence ever a situation to be condoned. We certainly don’t know the details of the allegations that Angelina is making against her soon-to-be ex-husband, but we do know that the children will now definitively be involved in this ongoing battle between their parents. They will now be in an extremely difficult situation. Imagine a courtroom full of young children speaking about their parents’ separation. This puts so much pressure on the children and they will feel compelled to choose sides in the divorce, which should always be avoided. It is easy for cases like this to spiral out of control and ultimately, the children will be the ones who suffer the most.
If you are in the midst of divorce proceedings or if you sense that things are not going as planned, reach out to an attorney to discuss your options. Feel free to contact our firm at jennyb@birzlaw.com or 201-701-1218 to ask questions or schedule a consultation.