Brad Pitt said that estranged wife Angelina Jolie is trying to manipulate the media with her latest court filing over child support.
In a brief filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, Jolie's attorney, Samantha Bley DeJean, claimed that Pitt had not been paying "meaningful" child support since their split.
But in a brief filed by Pitt's legal counsel on Wednesday, lawyer Lance Spiegel said that the 54-year-old "Moneyball" actor has loaned Jolie $8 million to "assist her in purchasing her current residence" and has paid over $1.3 million in bills "for the benefit" of the 43-year-old actress and their minor children Maddox, 16, Pax, 14, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 12, and 10-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.
With these figures at hand, Spiegel called Jolie's latest court filing as "unnecessary" and "a thinly-veiled effort to manipulate media coverage."
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt, citing irreconcilable differences, in September 2016. While the case is about to reach its two-year mark, the divorce proceedings are far from being over, as the "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" co-stars can't seem to come to an agreement on terms of custody for their children.
"Brad and Angelina are not even close to settling their divorce," a source told E! News. "They are so hung up on dealing with the custody issues that they haven't even exchanged any financial documents yet, which is routine in divorces and one of the first steps people take in the filing process."
"There will be no settlement or resolution anytime soon," continued the insider. "They are kind of at an impasse at this point because the focus has been on custody; nothing else has been hashed out yet."
Jolie, who previously had physical custody of all her six kids, was reportedly mad over being ordered by a judge last June to help fix her children's relationship with Pitt.
"Angelina was furious by the judge's last decision to allow Brad to have so much private time with the kids," a source told Entertainment Tonight. "The plan was to share custody of the children but she made it very clear to her friends that she was going to do everything in her power to put an end to that. This is causing endless arguing and that isn't good for the children."
Making the situation harder for all parties involved is that Pitt would reportedly not agree to Jolie getting full custody of their children. "He plans to follow the rules and step carefully because he wants the children to see his love for them and his calm, cool approach," the source added. "I think that infuriates Angelina even more."
