{UAH} NOTHING HOLLYWOOD LAST FOREVER: Could Brad and Angelina’s Divorce Really Be Based on Parenting Styles?
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Could Brad and Angelina's Divorce Really Be Based on Parenting Styles?
"Everyone talks about the joy of having kids — blah, blah, blah," Brad Pitt said in an interview not quite one year ago. "But I never knew how much I could love something until I looked in the faces of my children."
The dad of six may not be looking into those faces as often as he'd like if soon-to-be-ex-wife Angelina Jolie gets her way.
Jolie filed for divorce on Monday, citing irreconcilable differences and asking for physical custody of the couple's kids — Maddox, 15; Pax, 12; Zahara, 11; Shiloh, 10; and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8 — and for Pitt to have only visitation rights.
Reports on Jolie's motivation are vague and conflicting; while Page Six is claiming that Pitt's alleged dalliance with co-star Marion Cotillard is behind the split, TMZ cites discrepancies over parenting styles as Jolie's reason.
"Angelina's decision to file has to do with the way Brad was parenting the children … she was extremely upset with his methods," TMZ notes. "Our sources say Angelina became 'fed up' with Brad's consumption of weed and possibly alcohol, and mixed with what she believes is 'an anger problem' … felt it became dangerous for the children."
Joint legal vs. physical custody
It's been reported that Angelina is seeking joint legal custody of their kids. If accurate, according to New Jersey divorce attorney Jonathan Wolfe, who was on the team representing Katie Holmes in her split from Tom Cruise, that means "she is agreeing that Brad should share the right to make major decisions for their children," including medical, educational, extracurricular, and religious decisions.
In addition, Wolfe tells Yahoo Beauty, "If she is seeking sole physical custody, as reported, she is seeking to have the children reside primarily with her. This does not mean that they would not spend time with Brad. He would still have the right to visitation as determined by a judge. That said, he could have significantly less time than joint physical custody, which typically would give him approximately 50 percent of the time."
He notes that joint physical custody is common in California — land of harmonious co-parenting á la Heidi Klum and Seal and Jennifer Lopez with Marc Anthony. "Assuming Brad opposes her application and seeks joint physical custody, Angelina will need to convince a judge that spending less than 50 percent of their time with Brad is in the best interest of the children," he says.
"If he agrees to what she wants, then there's no problem," New York City-based divorce mediator Ken Neumann tells Yahoo Beauty. But if there's disagreement, he says, then the parents will likely be forced to see a mediator, while a forensic psychologist would be called upon to assess the situation from the kids' point of view.
Jolie would then have to present to a judge some "legitimate reasons," Neumann says, that she should have sole physical custody — such as the children being too young to be carted back and forth between homes or having special needs, or such as the other parent (Pitt in this case) having a schedule incompatible with childcare, being an alcoholic, or being otherwise "unfit" to care for the children.
Differing parenting styles
At this point, all that's been reported are vagaries about the different parenting styles of Jolie and Pitt and reports that Jolie is unhappy with Pitt's approach.
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