Celebrity Divorce Lawyer Reveals What's Next for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Children

The divorce documents have been revealed, but what does it all mean?

21 March, 2018
Celebrity Divorce Lawyer Reveals What's Next for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Children

​The divorce documents for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's split have been revealed. The documents show that Angelina cites irreconcilable difference as the reason for their split.

The documents also reveal what she's requesting for their six children. Angelina wants custody of Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh, Pax, Knox and Vivienne, although she has asked that Brad be granted visitation rights to them. But she wants him to have joint legal custody, and won't be seeking spousal support.

We've spoken to celebrity divorce lawyer Stacy Phillips, who works at Blank Rome LLP to get an expert's insight into what these documents actually mean.

Stacy says, "It is a bit odd that Angelina is asking for sole physical custody of the kids but joint legal custody, which includes the ability to make decisions about the kids' lives.

"If somebody's not capable of having custodial time then one would surmise that they're not capable of making decisions, but it's good that all of the couple's six children – adopted and birth children – are listed on the petition with Brad and Angelina as mother and father. Beyond the usual and customary reasons Angelina may have asked for sole physical custody, she may have made this request so that the children could travel with her when she is shooting a movie."

Angelina has clearly taken into consideration the needs of her and Brad's children – especially Maddox, Zahara and Pax who were adopted by the couple.

"This means that these kids are going to be treated as a unit, that he formally adopted them, because they've known him as their dad. It's secure and it's healthier for the kids. Especially when you have kids who've been adopted, they have a fear of abandonment, and putting them through another go-round of that is something that can be really hard on kids, especially adopted kids.

"At 15 years old the couple's oldest child, Maddox, has the right to express his custody preference to the court, and if the request is reasonable and rational then it must be taken into consideration. Hopefully he won't have to do this in court because having a child testify in court could be very traumatic for Maddox. No child should be asked to choose between his parents."

As well as the custody of the children, publications have begun speculating whether or not the couple would have signed a prenup. There's no sign of one on these particular documents but it's highly unlikely that a couple like them, with the amount of assets they have, would not have signed one.

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Credit: Cosmopolitan
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