DIVORCE

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Are Reportedly Inching Closer to Being Officially Divorced

Things are moving slowly for Brangelina’s divorce, but they might be able to legally sever ties before sorting out the rest of their legal drama.


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Steven Klein

The Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie divorce is inching forward at a glacial pace, but the former Hollywood power couple might finally be able to sever ties before sorting out the rest of their legal drama.

Pitt and Jolie married in August 2014, separated in September 2016, and have been on a roller coaster of a legal battle to get divorced and negotiate custody of their six children ever since. Now the two are reportedly seeking a bifurcation judgment in order to speed the process along.

If the bifurcation judgment were to pass, it would mean that Jolie and Pitt could be pronounced legally divorced before the rest of the details of the severance are ironed out. So while the court would still need to negotiate and finalize aspects like child custody and support, as well as the details regarding any joint properties or business ventures, like their rosé brand, they could be divorced on paper officially before those particulars are sorted by the judge.

While a bifurcation judgment is typically requested because one party wants to hurry along a divorce in order to legally remarry, it appears that is not the case for Jolie or Pitt. Despite rumors swirling that Pitt was dating fellow A-list actor Charlize Theron, the gossip was essentially squashed. In fact, according to Page Six and the Blast, the reason Jolie and Pitt have been repeatedly asking for a bifurcation judgment since last year is simply because they are tired of being legally tied to each other and just want to move on. “Both want to get on with their lives and no longer want to be married to each other,” a source told the Blast. After all of the ups and downs they’ve gone through in the past few years (from wanting to go to trial and then backtracking on the request to operating a vineyard together), Pitt and Jolie just want to be declared single by a court so that they can emotionally get on with it and focus on other parts of their busy lives.

This month, Jolie brought four of her children—Zahara, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne—to the premiere of Dumbo in Los Angeles, and during the weekend of the Oscars, in February, she opted for a New York night out with the family, bringing all six children (including Pax and Maddox, her two eldest) to the Museum of Modern Art for a screening of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (a Netflix film for which Jolie moderated a panel). Before that, she brought her four oldest kids to an art opening at MoMA, and was spotted selling organic dog treats with her children in L.A. as part of their family philanthropic initiatives. These back-to-back public appearances of the Jolie-Pitt kids (sans their father) made headlines not just for their rarity but also for occurring in light of the legal battle for custody that has been going on between their parents. (In December 2018, Jolie’s lawyer insisted to the press that a custody agreement between the parents was nigh and that they may not need to go to trial after all.)

In the meantime, Pitt and Jolie will just have to do what one does in the middle of a breakup—focus on work until the emotional wounds have healed. It shouldn’t be too hard for either of them, considering they are probably already too busy to watch an ongoing divorce battle play out in court step by step, with Jolie’s return to the screen in Disney’s Maleficent 2, and Pitt’s major role in the upcoming Quentin Tarantino ’60s period piece, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Related: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Are One Step Closer to a Custody Agreement