Brad Pitt Is Not Answering Angelina Jolie's Divorce

Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt will not be filing a legal response to his estranged wife Angelina Jolie's divorce petition. The 52-year-old actor does not want to cause significant psychological damage to their children with an ugly divorce battle.

The World War Z actor was supposed to have a legal response by Wednesday. However, the deadline passed without any documents being submitted.

According to what sources close the case have said to TMZ, Brad wants legal and physical custody of their six children. If he were to answer the petition papers, the battle lines would have been drawn for legal war. Angelina wants sole physical custody, a potential custody fight could have been ignited had Pitt filed a response.

Because Pitt failed to answer the divorce petition, Angelina could reportedly "set the wheels in motion for a default judgment."

Another component to the situation is that the L.A. County Dept. of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is still in the process of investigating the private jet confrontation between Brad and his son Maddox.

If the DCFS closes the case before Brad files a legal response, he will have a much stronger bargaining position for custody of the children.

TMZ sources have also mentioned that there is a possibility that the whole divorce case could be settled in private. Both Angelina and Brad reportedly are hoping to settle the divorce without having to duke it out in court.

Meanwhile, reports have surfaced that Brad Pitt has visited with his son Maddox for the first time since the incident that took place on September 14.

The caller made the claim that Pitt was both verbally and physically abusive towards Maddox. However, Pitt denies the claims and various reports have indicated that there was no physical abuse that took place.

The FBI has been investigating the alleged incident, but it is purely a fact-finding mission. On Tuesday, Angelina and the kids were questioned for hours by the authorities in order to shed some light on the airplane altercation.

Jolie and Pitt have six children, Maddox, 15, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and 8-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. The Maleficent actress currently has temporary physical custody of all six kids under a short-term settlement that was created by the L.A. DCFS.

The custody arrangement gives Angelina temporary physical custody while Brad gets visitation with a therapist present.

What are your thoughts on Brad Pitt choosing not to file a legal response to Angelina Jolie's divorce petition?

[H/T TMZ]