Brad attended “selective” AA meetings after his split from Ang when he heard celebrities secretly filming each other

In 2016, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s relationship came under serious scrutiny after she filed for divorce after two years of marriage.

Angelina, who shares six children with Brad, cited “irreconcilable differences” in the divorce papers, but they went through a highly publicized and exceptionally messy separation when they clashed over shared assets and custody.

At the center of the custody battle was an alleged altercation between Brad and his oldest son Maddox, who was 15 at the time, on the family’s private plane. maddox is reported having testified against Brad in court in the midst of their parents’ feud.

Brad was investigated by the FBI following the claims, where the actor reportedly told authorities that although he had yelled at his son, he had not intended to physically harm him, Angelina or any of their children.

He was eventually cleared of the charges, but in October 2021 Angelina told the guardian that she felt “broken” amid the “horrible” ongoing custody battle and said she feared for the safety of “her entire family” during her marriage.

“I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions like decisions that I had to make lightly,” she told the publication. “It was really hard for me to be in a position where I felt like I had to separate myself from the father of my children.”

In 2017, Brad admitted that his struggle with alcohol was a factor in the breakdown of their relationship, saying british gq:: “I don’t remember a day since I left university that I wasn’t drunk or smoking a joint or something like that. Something. And you realize that much of it is pacifiers. And I’m running from the feelings. I’m very, very happy to be done with all that.”

“I want to say I gave up everything except drinking when I started my family,” Brad added. “But even this last year, you know, things that I wasn’t dealing with. He was drinking too much. It’s just become a problem.”

Speaking about the extent of his drinking, Brad said he “could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka” and was a “pro” when it came to drinking, but decided to give it up because he didn’t “want to live that way.” way ever again.”

Brad was also outspoken about Child Services’ investigation of him, saying, “I was really on my back and chained to a system when Child Services was called. And you know, after that, we’ve been able to work together to figure this out. We are both doing our best.”

And the star has opened up about his ongoing commitment to getting sober in a new interview with GQwhere he said he spent 18 months as a member of a “really private and selective” Alcoholics Anonymous group that made him feel “safe.”

Brad also said that privacy was a very important factor for him, as he knows of others who have been secretly recorded by members of their AA groups during their most vulnerable moments.

“He had a cool group of guys here that was really private and selective, so it was safe,” he explained. “Because I had seen things from other people that had been recorded spilling their guts, and that is just appalling to me.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Brad said he thinks he spent years with undiagnosed “low-grade depression” but has finally discovered “joy.”

“I think joy has been a more recent discovery, later in life,” he told the publication. “I was always moving with the currents, drifting one way and the next. I think I spent years with low-grade depression, and it wasn’t until I accepted that, trying to embrace all sides of oneself, the beauty and the ugliness, that I was able to catch those moments of joy.”

While Brad and Angelina now appear to be on better terms regarding custody of their children, they have been at odds over another legal dispute in recent months.

In early June, Brad accused his ex-wife of intentionally harming him and tarnishing the reputation of their shared wine company after he reportedly sold his shares to a “stranger with poisonous associations and intentions.”

The former couple had bought a majority stake in the French wine business Château Miraval for €25 million in 2008, with each holding 50% of the stake.

Sources previously said page six that Brad and Angelina agreed to ask each other’s permission if they ever wanted to sell their shares, but Angelina allegedly tried to submit to a sale without consulting Brad in September.

In legal paperwork, Brad accused Angelina of not giving him the option to buy it or rejecting its sale, and it was later reported that Angelina had been approved to sell her shares to a third party.

Brad filed another legal complaint this month alleging that Angelina had acted illegally by selling her holdings to a Luxembourg-based liquor manufacturer controlled by a Russian oligarch, Yuri Shefler, without her knowledge.

Brad’s attorneys have argued that Angelina’s choice of who to sell to was her way of forcing Brad into doing business with “a stranger with poisonous associations and intentions” that would jeopardize the company’s reputation.

Brad is requesting a jury trial to make Angelina’s sale “null and void” and is also seeking an undisclosed amount of damages.

Meanwhile, there was recent speculation that Angelina may be attempting to litigate the FBI’s decision to acquit Brad of child abuse allegations under the Freedom of Information Act.

In April, entertainment tonight obtained legal documents from an anonymous woman seeking information on the FBI investigation that directly matches the description of the 2016 incident between Brad and Maddox.

“Several years ago, while plaintiff, her then-husband, and their children, who were all minors at the time, were traveling on a private plane, plaintiff’s husband allegedly physically and verbally assaulted plaintiff and the children,” the statement read. documents.

The lawsuit adds that the complaint is part of the woman’s effort to “better understand the FBI investigation and obtain the information necessary for her children to receive medical care and trauma counseling.”