Brad Pitt Fires Back at Angelina Jolie’s Child Support Claims

After Angelina Jolie‘s most recent court filing that insinuates ex-husband Brad Pitt is not keeping up his end in child support, the 54-year-old actor is fighting back with the support of his legal team.

PEOPLE reports in a brief filed to the Superior Court of the State of California last Tuesday, Pitt’s lawyer Lance Spiegel fired back at Jolie’s filing, deeming it “unnecessary” and “a thinly-veiled effort to manipulate media coverage.”

He added that Jolie’s implication that Pitt has not been paying “meaningful child support” during their marriage is false and provided specific sums of how much the father has contributed to their welfare.

Spiegel claims his client “loaned” Jolie $8 million to help purchase her current home and has given more than $1.3 million in “bills for the benefit of [Jolie] and the minor children.”

In reference to a meeting last week, Jolie alleged Pitt “has paid no meaningful child support since separation” and states she intends to seek out “retroactive child support” from the Fight Club star.

The actress and humanitarian hopes to push her case by asking the court to “bifurcate” their marital status — a procedure that means their marriage would be dissolved and recede their status back to being single before resolving other issues in the divorce.

In the Pitt filing, Spiegel adds that the “issue can now be resolved” since neither party is opposed to it despite Jolie and her legal team filing a motion to create the impression he did not.

Sources tell PEOPLE that the objective of Jolie’s filing “is to provide closure to the marriage in a way that clears a path toward the next stage of their lives and allows her and Brad to recommit as devoted co-parents to their children.”

According to insiders for Page Six, things between the once most renowned couple in the world have gotten incredibly nasty as of recent.

“Brad and Angelina had more arguments this summer over the kids, and while they had earlier this year halted the official divorce proceedings in the hopes of sorting out custody privately in front of a private judge, in reality they weren’t resolving anything,” the source said.

The source adds that Pitt “finally decided he’d had enough, and gave Angie warning he wanted to file to restart the official divorce proceedings in LA Superior Court, just to get things over and done with.”

Jolie, 43, and Pitt, 53, met in 2003 and married nearly a decade later in 2014 before they separated in September 2016 citing irreconcilable differences.

Custody of their six children — Maddox, 16; Pax, 14; Zahara, 13; Shiloh, 12; and 10-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox — has been an ongoing issue.

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