Angelina Jolie: I feared for safety of my children and family while married to Brad Pitt
By Paula Froelich
Angelina Jolie claims she feared for the safety of her children and family during her marriage to Brad Pitt — and was attacked by Harvey Weinstein early in her career. In a bombshell interview with The Guardian, Jolie obliquely talked about her never-ending divorce from Pitt while pushing about her new book “Know Your Rights,” stammering “I … I’m still in my own legal situation,” including allegations of child abuse leveled at Pitt.
The actress claims she was scared for “my whole family” during the union.
“I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions like the decisions I had to make lightly,” she told the paper. “It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children.”
Jolie and Pitt share six children: Maddox, 20, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15, and 13-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox. Maddox is not included in the ongoing custody battle because he is no longer a minor.
Jolie filed for divorce in 2016. Pitt was cleared of child abuse allegations made by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services regarding an incident between him and Maddox on a plane from the US to Europe.
While the duo are now legally divorced, they are still battling over custody of their children.
The “Inglourious Basterds” actor was first granted joint custody of the former couple’s five minor children in May by Judge John W. Ouderkirk, but a California appeals court disqualified Ouderkirk because it was found that he did not adequately disclose business relationships with Pitt’s attorneys.
Ouderkirk, who declined to disqualify himself from their divorce when Jolie asked him to in a 2020 court filing, has a long past with the family. He even married Pitt and the “Maleficent” actress in 2014.
Pitt declined to comment to the Guardian.
When asked about the last five years, Jolie said the divorce had been “traumatic” and added: “I mean, in some ways it’s been the last decade. There’s a lot I can’t say … I think at the end of the day, even if you and a few people you love are the only people who know the truth of your life, what you fight for, or what you sacrifice, or what you’ve suffered, you come to be at peace with that, regardless of everything going on around you.”
Another issue she had with Pitt during their marriage was his willingness to work with rapist Harvey Weinstein whom, she claims, abused her.
“It was beyond a pass, it was something I had to escape,” said Jolie, who starred in Weinstein’s “Playing by Heart” when she was 21.
“I stayed away and warned people about him. I remember telling Jonny, my first husband, who was great about it, to spread the word to other guys – don’t let girls go alone with him. I was asked to do ‘The Aviator’, but I said no because he was involved. I never associated or worked with him again. It was hard for me when Brad did.”
Jolie claims Pitt asked Weinstein to work as a producer for the noir thriller, “Killing Them Softly,” which the Weinstein Company later distributed.
“We fought about (Weinstein’s involvement),” Jolie said, noting of her then husband’s apparent eagerness to work with Weinstein, “Of course it hurt.”
However, another one of Pitt’s exes, Gwyneth Paltrow, had a completely different experience after Weinstein allegedly invited the young actress — then just 22 years old — back to his hotel room and suggested they get massages in the bedroom.
Pitt allegedly confronted Weinstein at a movie premiere and physically threatened the producer which, at the time, was a huge risk for the up and coming actor.
Plan B productions, Pitt’s company, is also working on a film about New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who helped take down Weinstein with their Pulitzer Prize-winning report.
