Angelina Jolie is clapping back at ex-husband Brad Pitt after he claimed her recent legal filing in their child support dispute was an attempt to “manipulate the media.”
Jolie’s lawyer, Samantha Bley DeJean, said in a statement that Jolie’s court filing with the Los Angeles Superior Court was “both legally appropriate and factually accurate in all respects.”
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“What has been filed by Brad’s side today is a blatant attempt to obfuscate the truth and distract from the fact that he has not fully met his legal obligations to support the children,” Bley DeJean told PEOPLE.
As previously reported, in a court filing from Tuesday, Jolie indicated that Pitt has not been paying “meaningful” child support during their separation. He responded with his own filing stating he paid over $1.3 million to provide for the actress and their six children, as well as a loan of $8 million to help her purchase her current home.
“Following the incident of September 2016, Angelina and the children needed to move from the family home, which Brad chose to keep, including all of its contents,” she said.
Bley DeJean claimed the actor was “asked to a assist in the expense of a new home for Angelina” and their children but “instead he loaned Angelina money, for which he is charging her interest on a payment date.”
Jolie’s issue with the loan, which her attorney says she will “honor,” is that it is not “child support and to represent it as such is misleading an inaccurate.” She claims that she is “asking Brad to pay 50% of the children’s expenses” but that the actor “has not” paid his share.
“Angelina has had to shoulder the majority of those without his contribution for the past two years,” Bley DeJean said. “Child support is not optional in California.” Bley DeJean added that “a father of means” would typically pay child support “voluntarily without the need for a request or court order,” and added that “We are hopeful that this can be resolved without further delay or posturing.”
The actress and director said that she intends to seek out “retroactive child support” from Pitt. She also asked the court to “bifurcate” their marital status, which means they would dissolve the marriage and be single before resolving other issues in the divorce.
Overall, Jolie’s aim is reportedly to “provide closure to the marriage in a way that clears a path toward the next stage of their lives,” according to a source for PEOPLE.
But Pitt’s lawyer, Lance Spiegel, slammed Jolie’s filing on Wednesday, calling it “unnecessary” and a “thinly-veiled effort to manipulate media coverage.” In the filing, Spiegel confirmed the $8 million loan and the fact that he contributed over $1.3 million.
The couple met in 2003 and wed in 2014 before separating in 2016, citing irreconcilable differences. Custody of their six children (Maddox, 16; Pax, 14; Zahara, 13; Shiloh, 12; twins Vivienne and Knox, 10) has been an ongoing issue since then.
