Angelina Jolie's 8-Year Divorce Battle with Brad Pitt Has Been 'Horrendous' (Exclusive Source)

Mar. 15, 2025

Angelina Jolie; Brad Pitt.Photo: Amy Sussman/WireImage; Steve Granitz/WireImage

After eight years of heated litigation,Angelina JolieandBrad Pittfinallyreached a divorce agreement, signing paperson Monday, Dec. 30, PEOPLE reported.

As one source close to Jolie says, “These last eight years have been such a horrendous time for her and her family."

“She could have pressed charges against him. She could have told the world what happened. She didn’t,” the source says. “All she wanted was for Brad to get the help he needed and for their children to get the support they needed to heal.”

“It gives her some relief, though, that this part is finally over,” the source adds.

In aGQinterviewpublished in May 2017, less than one year into the divorce proceedings, Pitt revealed he was sober and shed light on how they were approaching negotiations at the time.

Angelina Jolie on Aug. 29, 2024.JB Lacroix/FilmMagic

JB Lacroix/FilmMagic

“We’re both doing our best. I heard one lawyer say, ‘No one wins in court — it’s just a matter of who gets hurt worse.’ And it seems to be true,” Pitt said at the time. “You spend a year just focused on building a case to prove your point and why you’re right and why they’re wrong, and it’s just an investment in vitriolic hatred. I just refuse. And fortunately my partner in this agrees.”

Why did the split take years to hash out? One source told PEOPLE in July 2024 that things “turned nasty” right before the breakup and “all the bitterness is partly why the divorce has dragged onfor so many years: Neither will let it go.”

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on Nov. 5, 2015.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

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Jolie’s divorce attorney James Simon of Hersh Mannis said in a statement Dec. 30 that Jolie and the kids “left all of the properties they had shared with” Pitt after she filed for divorce and “since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family.”

“This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago,” Simon said of reaching closure in the divorce proceedings. “Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.”

Together Pitt and Jolie share six kids: Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16. As a source indicated in July 2024, Pitthas “virtually no contact” with their adult children, however, per an agreement with Jolie, “he has visitation with the younger kids.”

The distance from his kids “pains him,” asource previously told PEOPLE. “He loves his children and misses them. It’s very sad.”

Brad Pitt on Sept. 1, 2024.Daniele Venturelli/WireImage

Daniele Venturelli/WireImage

For the past two years, Pitt has been datingInes de Ramon, 35, and one insider said in November 2024 they are “incredibly happy together,“and “it’s clear they’re in it for the long haul.”

While discussing her return to acting in the movieMaria, Jolie recently toldVanity Fairshe “wasn’t myself for a while, so I wasn’t able to give as much to my work for a few years,” but making the film “was the beginning of starting to come alive again.”

While the divorce may be finalized, the exesremain at odds in a legal battle over the French winerythey once owned together, Château Miraval, which is where they married in 2014.

source: people.com