Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt announced their separation back in September 2016, and things have only gotten more intense over the past few years as the couple has gone back and forth over custody of their children.
Due to the fact that the pair has been unable to agree permanently on custody or child support, they are technically still married, though the custody arrangement issue is seemingly drawing to a conclusion based on new court documents filed last week.
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On Oct. 8, Dr. Stan Katz, the child custody evaluator who was appointed by the court, submitted documents, which means that an evaluation is officially beginning. The Blast reports that the documents inform the court that the physician is qualified and meets the necessary requirements.
In the meantime, Jolie and Pitt had reached a temporary custody agreement while the evaluator finished his report, after which time the court will review the submitted evaluation and determine a permanent custody order based on the report’s findings.
The evaluation involves interviews with multiple people in the children’s lives, including the family caregivers and the children themselves.
Jolie and Pitt are parents to six children — Maddox, 17, Pax, 14, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 12, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 10.
Over the summer, a judge had set a schedule for the children to visit Pitt while Jolie was filming in the U.K., with Jolie and her children later returning to Los Angeles. As the couple’s oldest child, Maddox was the only one able to decide whether or not he wanted to see Pitt due to his age. At the time, a judge warned Jolie that she may lose custody if she didn’t allow her children to grow their relationship with Pitt.
“He’s hopeful he’ll have joint custody of the children,” a source told Us Weekly of Pitt in September. “All Brad wants is to be a present dad and coparent with Angelina.”
Recent months have also seen Jolie and Pitt go back and forth over child support, with court filings by Jolie insinuating that Pitt was not keeping up with child support payments, something Pitt’s lawyer denied.
In a brief filed to the Superior Court of the State of California in August, Pitt’s lawyer Lance Spiegel said Jolie’s implication that Pitt has not been paying “meaningful child support” during their marriage is false and even offered specific sums of how much the actor has contributed to his children’s welfare, PEOPLE reported.
Photo Credit: Getty / Barry King
