Angelina Jolie’s 8-Year Divorce Battle with Brad Pitt Has Been ‘Horrendous’ (Exclusive Source)

“These last eight years have been such a horrendous time for her and her family,” a source tells PEOPLE

Benjamin VanHoose is a Staff Editor on the Movies team at PEOPLE. He has written about entertainment and breaking news for over five years.

Published on December 31, 2024 11:34AM EST

After eight years of heated litigation, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt finally reached a divorce agreement, signing papers on Monday, Dec. 30, PEOPLE reported.

As one source close to Jolie says, “These last eight years have been such a horrendous time for her and her family.”

Jolie, now 49, filed for divorce from Pitt, now 61, on Sept. 19, 2016 — a breakup that was precipitated by a private plane flight on which Pitt allegedly became drunkenly abusive with her and their kids. He was not charged by authorities after investigations at the time and Jolie declined to press charges.

“She could have pressed charges against him. She could have told the world what happened. She didn’t,” the source says. “All she wanted was for Brad to get the help he needed and for their children to get the support they needed to heal.”

“It gives her some relief, though, that this part is finally over,” the source adds.

Alleged details of the plane trip were included in a 2022 cross-complaint submitted by Jolie’s legal team in the exes’ winery fight. At the time a source close to Pitt said the filing included “completely untrue information.”

“She had the opportunity to share information with law enforcement who made the decision not to press charges, the Pitt source told PEOPLE at the time. “She had the chance to share this during the lengthy custody trial, which resulted in the judge granting 50-50 custody to Pitt.” (A private judge overseeing their custody case was later disqualified by an appeals court and the ruling did not go into effect.)

In a GQ interview published in May 2017, less than one year into the divorce proceedings, Pitt revealed he was sober and shed light on how they were approaching negotiations at the time.

“We’re both doing our best. I heard one lawyer say, ‘No one wins in court — it’s just a matter of who gets hurt worse.’ And it seems to be true,” Pitt said at the time. “You spend a year just focused on building a case to prove your point and why you’re right and why they’re wrong, and it’s just an investment in vitriolic hatred. I just refuse. And fortunately my partner in this agrees.”

But things would eventually turn uglier. The actors, who met while making the 2005 action film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, were eventually declared legally single by a judge in 2019 as the divorce and custody battle prolonged.

Why did the split take years to hash out? One source told PEOPLE in July 2024 that things “turned nasty” right before the breakup and “all the bitterness is partly why the divorce has dragged on for so many years: Neither will let it go.”

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Jolie’s divorce attorney James Simon of Hersh Mannis said in a statement Dec. 30 that Jolie and the kids “left all of the properties they had shared with” Pitt after she filed for divorce and “since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family.”

“This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago,” Simon said of reaching closure in the divorce proceedings. “Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.”

Together Pitt and Jolie share six kids: Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16. As a source indicated in July 2024, Pitt has “virtually no contact” with their adult children, however, per an agreement with Jolie, “he has visitation with the younger kids.”

The distance from his kids “pains him,” a source previously told PEOPLE. “He loves his children and misses them. It’s very sad.”

For the past two years, Pitt has been dating Ines de Ramon, 35, and one insider said in November 2024 they are “incredibly happy together,” and “it’s clear they’re in it for the long haul.” 

While discussing her return to acting in the movie Maria, Jolie recently told Vanity Fair she “wasn’t myself for a while, so I wasn’t able to give as much to my work for a few years,” but making the film “was the beginning of starting to come alive again.”

While the divorce may be finalized, the exes remain at odds in a legal battle over the French winery they once owned together, Château Miraval, which is where they married in 2014.