Why Aren’t Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Divorced Yet?
On August 14, 2014, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married in a small ceremony in the chapel on the grounds of their French winery, Chateau Miraval. Just over two years later, on a private flight from Miraval back to Los Angeles, Pitt allegedly had a physical confrontation with Jolie in front of their six children, prompting her to file for divorce. Eight years later, that divorce is still not over.
[...]
One of the biggest possible reasons this proceeding has dragged on so long is because technically, Jolie and Pitt are already divorced. In 2019, a judge declared the two legally single in what’s known as a bifurcated judgment, meaning they are free to marry other people as they continue to argue over their finances, custody, and all other matters related to the divorce. In California, couples can get a bifurcated divorce for almost any reason, which takes away some of the motivation to finalize things in a timely manner, explains Sophie Jacobi-Parisi, a partner in the matrimonial and family-law practice at Blank Rome who is not affiliated with the case. “I feel like there are a lot of divorces I would never have gotten done” without that incentive, she says, noting that she practices in New York and Connecticut, where bifurcated judgments are typically not allowed.
...
Perhaps you are wondering this: So how much is all this costing these people? The answer: too much. “I’m totally speculating, but what we know is that they had a private judge who did a whole custody trial,” said Jacobi-Parisi, adding up the various expenses. “They’ve had multiple experts related to the custody case. They’ve had multiple lawyers — I think each of them has had at least two to three, maybe more lawyers, and every time you change lawyers, it increases the cost. And then this whole Miraval filing is an added cost.”
“I think all in, it’s probably between $8 and $10 million,” she said.
To read the full article, please click here.
"Why Aren’t Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Divorced Yet?" by Allie Jones was published in The Cut on May 10, 2024.