For years, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt sold the happy family image, hard. It came as a bombshell when, in 2016, Angelina filed for divorce. Rumors swirled about a confrontation between Brad and one of their six children that had gotten out of hand and become physical.
The courts eventually awarded Angelina primary physical custody of the children and gave Brad supervised visitation rights. Now those custody orders have been amended, reports CNN.
The judge issued a court order that gives Brad more rights with their children. The order requires Angelina to encourage the children’s relationship with their father. She is required to have her children’s doctors explain to them that they’re safe with Pitt and that the “court has determined that not having a relationship with their father is harmful.”
It further lays out a shared custody arrangement for this summer while Angelina films the sequel to her hit Disney film, “Maleficent.” The children will spend part of their time in Los Angeles with Brad and part of the time in London with Angelina. Their oldest child, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, is allowed to decide for himself how much time he wants to spend with Pitt.
The court has also ordered Jolie to give Pitt phone numbers for each child. She has to allow him to speak to them whenever he wishes. She has been forbidden from reading any text messages that he sends.
In an even more eyebrow-raising move, the judge stated that if Jolie doesn’t follow these orders and doesn’t allow Pitt more access to the children, he might reduce the amount of visitation time she has with them — or even award Pitt primary physical custody.
Pitt was cleared of child abuse allegations by both the FBI and child protective services, but his visits with the children are still heavily supervised, with the children being monitored by doctors after visits.
Neither Pitt nor Jolie have commented on the ruling so far.
