For the past five years or so, “sources close to Brad Pitt” will update Us Weekly. Usually the updates happen every couple of months, and the updates are inevitably variations of “Angelina Jolie is being so mean to Poor Brad” and “Brad is just a humble guy who wants to see his kids.” This September will be the six-year anniversary of Angelina getting the hell out of the marriage and getting the kids the hell away from Brad. A lot of sh-t has happened in the past six years, legally, financially, psychologically. Yet Brad abides with this narrative of someone sad and arty, someone quietly fighting for his kids.

Brad Pitt is focusing on work as he continues his custody battle with ex-wife Angelina Jolie, an insider exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.

“Brad has been holed up at his place,” the source says of the Oscar winner, 58. “He occasionally enjoys downtime at his art studio. … He’s busy signing off on and brainstorming projects all the time, [and his production company] Plan B is always working on stuff.”

The Bullet Train star and the Maleficent actress, 46, who tied the knot in August 2014 after nine years together, were declared legally single in 2019, but they are still hammering out the details for custody of their six children: Maddox, 20, Pax, 18, Zahara, 17, Shiloh, 16, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 13.

“It’s very clear to him that Angie has gone out of her way to delay and stall the process,” the insider tells Us. “All he can do is work with his legal team and file the paperwork whilst responding to her claims. Month after month goes by with one piece of red tape after another, endless jumping through hoops and bickering between their lawyers with no resolution.”

According to the insider, Pitt’s “sober buddies,” including Flea and Thomas Houseago, have been supporting him throughout the custody battle, but he’s “not going out and mingling in Los Angeles like he used to” before the pandemic. “His will to put on a happy face and have fun out of his comfort zone has just kind of dried up.”

He is, however, excited to remodel his home in France, which was a major point of contention throughout his split from Jolie. “The whole estate is going to be remodeled and fixed up for these cool new extensions, like the recording studio and other features Brad’s custom-designing himself,” the source explains. “He loves that place and sees it as his spiritual home in a lot of ways. He can be by himself or relax with friends.”

[From Us Weekly]

There are many people keeping track of all of the Jolie-Pitt divorce filings – the filings which are public – and for years, Jolie has been the organized one, she’s been the one keeping up with motions, disclosures, filings. Brad has been the one slow-walking the divorce for years. I’m still not sure if he’s even made his financial disclosures to the court. Regardless of whether they ever work out any kind of deal on custody, the fact is that they haven’t even begun to work out the financial part of their divorce because Brad hasn’t been “responding to her claims.”

As for the stuff about the Chateau Miraval… I heard there was some kind of raid by French authorities? I heard that Tenute del Mondo, the company which bought Jolie’s half of Miraval, is disgusted with all of the alleged financial impropriety within Brad’s half of the business. I haven’t seen any media outlet report on that yet, but we’ll see.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.