Angelina Jolie’s lawyer has also once again requested to remove Judge John W. Ouderkirk from the custody case, months after her previous request was denied.
Brad Pitt, 57, is accusing ex Angelina Jolie, 46, of “delaying” their custody battle as their legal woes continue. The couple share six kids together: Shiloh, 15, Vivienne, 12, Maddox, 19, Zahara, 16, Pax, 17, and Knox, 12, together (oldest son Maddox is not part of the custody fight as he’s now a legal adult at 19). Brad was granted joint custody in a tentative ruling two months ago — four years after Angelina requested sole custody in 2016.
The accusation by Brad came up via his lawyer Theodore Boutrous during a Friday hearing pertaining to their custody battle and divorce split. Angelina’s lawyer, Robert Olson, has lobbied to remove private Judge John W. Ouderkirk from the case per the argument that the judge hasn’t been impartial (notably, Jolie filed documents that Ouderkirk “failed to disclose” that he had a professional relationship with one of Brad’s attorney’s back in Aug. 2020). Jolie alleged in previous court documents that the judge denied her “a fair trial, improperly excluding her evidence relevant to the children’s health, safety, and welfare, evidence critical to making her case.”
“Until Ms. Jolie asked, what was going on was only known to the judge, the [advance review and consolidation] and the opposing counsel … she was shocked that this was going on,” Olson said. “Ms. Jolie did not know anything that happened between counsel for Pitt and the judge,” he also said, making it clear that Angelina was not aware of the conflict between Ouderkirk and Brad’s legal team.
Brad’s lawyer Theodore, however, argued that Angelina was aware of the conflict — alleging she was using this issue as a “delaying tactic” in the custody case. “Here in a child custody case that’s been going on for so long, the children are getting older…and to allow a delaying tactic like this would be extremely unjust,” he said back. “There were no surprises…Ms. Jolie and her counsel knew about the relationship and the grounds,” Brad’s lawyer also explained.
Brad and Angelina legally married in 2014 and split in 2016 after a decade together collectively. The pair met while working on the action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, striking up a romance amid Brad’s split from ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, 52. Angelina was previously married to Jonny Lee Miller, who she recently connected with in NYC, from 1996 – 1999, and Billy Bob Thornton from 2000 – 2003.