In a wild twist, Angelina Jolie scored a big win when the California appeals court booted the private judge in her ongoing custody battle with Brad Pitt. The judge, John Ouderkirk, had ruled in May that Pitt would get joint custody of their five kids—but Jolie wasn’t having it. She appealed, and this time, the court agreed.
Why? The judge had some shady business connections with Pitt’s lawyers and didn’t disclose them. The court called it an “ethical breach” and said it could bias the judge. Translation: a fresh judge must restart the custody case from scratch. Ouch.
Jolie was mad. She thought she and the kids had been “denied a fair trial,” especially after Ouderkirk refused to let the kids testify. For Jolie, that was a dealbreaker. The Brangelina saga started in 2016 when Jolie filed for divorce, just after Pitt was investigated for child abuse allegations (he was cleared). The couple married for two years but had been together for over a decade. They were declared legally single in 2019, but their custody battle raged on.
The kids in question are Pax (17), Zahara (16), Shiloh (15), and the 13-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox. Their oldest, Maddox, 19, was already out of the picture for custody decisions. What are the stakes? Who gets to make the big calls in their lives?
Jolie’s legal team didn’t just go after the judge’s ethics; they raised more significant questions about private judges in high-profile divorce cases. Can a paid judge stay neutral? Should there be more rules about that? Her lawyer, Robert Olson, had no time for it: “You have to play by the rules, and the rules are clear.”
Despite the drama, Pitt’s team stayed chill, calling the disqualification a “technical issue.” They argued the custody ruling was still solid and hadn’t changed. But Jolie wasn’t backing down. She wanted a fair shot for her kids, and this was just one more round in the long fight for justice.
So, after years of custody battles, tabloid drama, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith nostalgia, Brangelina is still in the legal spotlight. And something tells us this saga isn’t over yet.
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