Brad Pitt Just Won Joint Custody While Angelina Jolie Claims It Wasn’t a ‘Fair Trial’

A years-long divorce battle may be coming to a close now that Brad Pitt and Angelia Jolie’s custody decision has been announced. According to The New York Post’s Page Six, California Judge John Ouderkirk awarded the Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood actor joint custody of his kids with the Maleficent star.

News of Judge Ouderkirk’s decision was first reported by Page Six on Wednesday, May 26—nearly five years after Pitt, 57, and Jolie, 45, first began to battle it out over the custody of their children in court. The exes, who divorced in 2016 after two years of marriage and 12 years together, share six kids: Maddox, 19, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and 12-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.

Pitt’s custody win comes just one month after Jolie accused him of domestic violence in court. The actress indicated that she and her kids were willing to offer “proof and authority in support” of the allegations against the Fight Club actor. Later that month, the former couple’s eldest son, Maddox, testified against his father. But now Jolie believes Judge Ouderkirk denied her “a fair trial, improperly excluding her evidence relevant to the children’s health, safety, and welfare, evidence critical to making her case,” read court documents from Monday, May 24, according to Entertainment Tonight.

The Those Who Wish Me Dead star also claimed that Judge Ouderkirk—whom she previously requested to be removed from her case—”failed to adequately consider” a section of the California courts code that notes it isn’t within a child’s best interest to be placed under the custody of anyone with a history of domestic violence. Though Pitt was cleared of allegations of child abuse by both the Department of Child and Family Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2016, Jolie’s Monday court filing indicates she will seek to appeal a decision like Judge Ouderkirk’s.

Pitt, meanwhile, is “relieved” by what sources describe as a “detailed” ruling by Judge Ouderkirk. “All Brad ever wanted was to have joint custody of his children and he is relieved that the court ruled in his favor,” an insider told ET on Wednesday. “This is a huge deal given the prior arrangement with the children. Brad can’t wait to spend more time with them.”