Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are still caught in a contentious divorce dispute.
While details about the former couple are limited, sources have shared information with the media that sheds light on the disintegration of their marriage.
Among the notable voices is Krisann Morel, Jolie’s childhood nanny, who claims that the actress is vilifying Pitt and manipulating their children amid their ongoing battle.
Morel played a significant role in Jolie’s early life, reportedly forming a strong bond with Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who tragically passed away from cancer.
Morel gained public attention in 2010 when Andrew Morton released an unauthorized biography about Angelina Jolie. Unlike many anonymous sources in the book, Morel chose to speak on the record, providing an intimate look at Jolie’s challenging upbringing. Her narrative reveals a troubled childhood filled with painful experiences.
The turmoil began with the separation of Jolie’s parents, Marcheline Bertrand and Jon Voight, in 1976. Jolie was merely six months old when her father left the family for a young drama student, leaving a significant emotional void.
“Jon Voight was a terrible father to her at that time. He betrayed her mother, leaving Marcheline heartbroken,” Susan Margaret, a friend of Jolie’s, recounted in an interview.
“She confided in me that Jon emotionally abused her. Angelina faced many difficulties growing up due to the turmoil,” she added.
Bertrand sacrificed her own acting dreams to focus on nurturing Jolie and her older brother, James Haven Voight. During Angelina’s early years, they moved between various rented apartments in New York City.
“We weren’t poor, but there was an expectation that we had wealth because I was the child of an actor,” Angelina revealed in a 2002 interview.
However, the family’s financial difficulties were not the most challenging aspect of their lives. Morel indicated that Bertrand struggled with her feelings towards Jolie, as the young girl bore a striking resemblance to her father. This tension escalated to the point where Bertrand kept Jolie secluded in a separate apartment within their building for two years, attended to by a rotating team of caregivers.
“Angie was a very lonely and troubled child. Her mother became convinced that Jon was cheating even before she was born,” Morel shared with the Daily Mail in 2016.
This separate apartment was originally meant for Jon’s production company, but Jolie ended up living there with nannies while her mother avoided seeing her, staying three floors below. Occasionally, Bertrand would come upstairs to visit Morel, expressing her sorrow over her situation.“It broke my heart. It still upsets me. I really felt for that child,” Morel wrote in Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography.
Morel revealed that Angelina and her brother were largely raised by nannies and often found themselves caught in the middle of their mother’s struggles. According to Morel, Jolie was often weaponized against their father.
“Jon was depicted as the villain, and Marcheline successfully turned both children against him. But this led to years of pain and unresolved wounds that linger to this day,” Morel told the Daily Mail.
Following the disintegration of “Brangelina,” Morel feared that Angelina might repeat her mother’s mistakes with Pitt. She noted the disturbing parallels between Angelina’s current situation and her own difficult childhood, especially when Bertrand severed ties with Jon Voight.
Morel expressed her worries, stating, “I wish I could tell her, ‘Please don’t alienate Brad from the children’s lives. Don’t use them as weapons during your divorce. And don’t demonize your husband.’ Because that’s exactly what your mother did during her breakup with your father, resulting in a lonely and traumatic childhood for you. Why would you inflict that same tragedy on your kids?”
Current Situation
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have six children: three adopted (Pax, Maddox, and Zahara) and three biological (Shiloh, Vivienne, and Knox). Since their high-profile separation in 2016, the former power couple has been engaged in a complicated custody battle.
The court drama has been filled with ups and downs. Jolie initially held full custody until May 2021, when Pitt was awarded joint custody. However, this decision was overturned after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk, who ruled in Pitt’s favor, was removed from the case due to concerns regarding his impartiality.
Currently, Jolie has primary physical custody, while Pitt has scheduled “custodial time” with their minor children. Yet, a final resolution appears distant.
As recently as April, Jolie filed court papers in Los Angeles accusing Pitt of physical abuse—claims he has vehemently denied.
Reports indicate that one of their daughters, Vivienne, has chosen to drop “Pitt” from her last name, with her sister Shiloh also seeking a legal name change. Additionally, 19-year-old Zahara is reportedly using “Jolie” as her surname, and their eldest child, Maddox, 22, also doesn’t include “Pitt” in his name.
For Pitt, these name changes symbolize a deeper estrangement that has developed over the years. According to Little Things, this growing distance has had a profound emotional impact on him, with a source stating, “Brad was devastated by this choice.”
Further escalating the tension, his son Pax harshly criticized Pitt in a 2020 Instagram post that recently resurfaced. “You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell,” Pax allegedly wrote on his private account. “You may tell yourself and the world whatever you want, but the truth will come to light someday.” He concluded with, “So Happy Father’s Day, you f*****g awful human being.”
A Heartfelt Plea
Currently, Shiloh is the only child legally changing her name, but the overall sentiment seems clear: the children are aligning with their mother amid the ongoing discord between their parents.
Krisann Morel believes Angelina still grapples with abandonment issues, which manifest in her relationship with her children today.
“I don’t know Brad Pitt, but he seems like a decent person, and he resembles Jon, so this is a clear repetition of the past. Angie has no real understanding of what a normal family looks like. Brad does; he came from one,” she said in 2016.
“These kids have been through enough. Angie is attempting to sever their connection with their father just as her mother did with hers. There is so little stability for these children as they move around so much—she is threatening to take away the only stability they have.”
My Husband Refused to Replace Our Broken Vacuum and Said I Should Sweep Since I’m ‘Just on Maternity Leave’ — So I Taught Him a Lesson He’ll Never Forget
When our vacuum broke, my husband said I should just sweep because I’m “home all day anyway.” So I grabbed our newborn and a broken broom and showed up at his office to remind him exactly what that really looks like.
I’m 30. I just had my first baby, a sweet little girl named Lila. She’s 9 weeks old, and yeah—she’s perfect. But also? She’s chaos. She screams like she’s in a horror movie. Hates naps. Hates being put down. Basically lives in my arms.
A fussy baby in his mother’s arms | Source: Pexels
I’m on unpaid maternity leave, which sounds relaxing until you realize it means I’m working a 24/7 shift with no help, no breaks, and no paycheck.
I’m also handling the house. And the laundry. And the meals. And the litter boxes. We have two cats, both of whom shed like it’s their full-time job.
A tired woman sitting on a couch | Source: Pexels
My husband Mason is 34. He works in finance. Used to be sweet. When I was pregnant, he made me tea and rubbed my feet. Now? I’m not sure he sees me. I’m the woman who hands him the baby so he can say “she’s fussy” and give her back five seconds later.
Last week, the vacuum died. Which, in a house with two cats and beige carpet, is like losing oxygen.
A woman vacuuming | Source: Pexels
“Hey,” I told Mason while he was playing Xbox. “The vacuum finally kicked it. I found a decent one on sale. Can you grab it this week?”
He didn’t even look up. Just paused his game and said, “Why? Just use a broom.”
I blinked. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Yeah. My mom didn’t have a vacuum when we were kids. She raised five of us with a broom. You’ve got one. And you’re home all day.”
A man lounging on the couch | Source: Pexels
I stared at him.
“You’re not joking,” I said.
“Nope.” He smirked. “She didn’t complain.”
I let out this weird laugh. Half choking, half dying inside.
“Did your mom also carry a screaming baby around while sweeping with one arm?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Probably. She got it done. Women were tougher back then.”
A man arguing with his wife | Source: Pexels
I took a breath. Tried to keep calm. “You do know the baby’s crawling soon, right? She’s going to have her face in this carpet.”
Another shrug. “The place isn’t that bad.”
I looked around. There were literal cat tumbleweeds in the corner.
“And anyway,” he added, “I don’t have spare money right now. I’m saving for the yacht trip next month. With the guys.”
“You’re saving for what?”
A man turning away from his wife | Source: Pexels
“The boat weekend. I told you. I need the break. I’m the one bringing in income right now. It’s exhausting.”
That’s when I stopped talking. Because what was I going to say?
“You haven’t changed a diaper in days?” “You nap while I pump milk at 3 a.m.?” “You think scrubbing spit-up off a onesie is relaxing?”
I didn’t say any of it. I just nodded.
A sad woman sitting on the couch | Source: Pexels
Apparently, child-rearing is a spa retreat now, and the woman doing it doesn’t deserve a working vacuum. That night, after Lila finally fell asleep on my chest, I didn’t cry. I didn’t yell.
I just sat in the hallway. The light was off, but the dim glow from the nightlight hit the baby monitor just right. It was quiet. Too quiet.
I looked at the broken vacuum. Then I looked at the broom.
A crying woman | Source: Pexels
I got up. Took the broom in both hands. Snapped it clean in half.
The next morning, while Mason was at work, I texted him.
“Busy day at the office?”
“Yeah. Back-to-backs. Why?”
“Oh. No reason. I’m just on my way.”
A woman talking on her phone at home | Source: Pexels
I packed Lila into the car, still red-faced from her morning meltdown. I tossed the broken broom in the back.
And I drove.
I pulled into the parking lot of Mason’s office with Lila screaming in the back like I’d strapped her into a rocket seat instead of a car seat. She’d just blown out her diaper on the drive, and she wasn’t shy about letting me know how she felt about it.
A baby crying | Source: Pexels
Perfect.
I wiped spit-up off my shirt, threw a burp cloth over my shoulder, hoisted the broken broom, and unbuckled the baby.
“Alright, Lila,” I muttered. “Let’s go say hi to Daddy.”
His office building was all glass and steel and fake smiles. I walked in with a red-faced baby in one arm and a jagged broom handle in the other.
A woman holding a baby | Source: Pexels
The receptionist blinked twice when she saw us.
“Can I help—?”
“I’m Mason Carter’s wife,” I said, smiling widely. “He left something important at home.”
“Oh. Um. Sure. He’s in a meeting, but you can go back.”
I walked past her desk like I owned the place.
A kind woman holding a baby | Source: Pexels
Lila started wailing again just as I turned the corner into the conference room. There he was. Mason. Sitting at a long glass table with four coworkers, laughing about something on a spreadsheet like he didn’t have a wife slowly unraveling at home.
He looked up. His face went white.
“Babe—what are you doing here?” he said, standing up fast.
I walked straight in and laid the two snapped broom pieces gently on the table in front of him.
A shocked man | Source: Pexels
“Honey,” I said, shifting Lila on my hip, “I tried using the broom like your mom did with her five kids. But it broke. Again.”
The room went silent. Someone coughed. One guy just stared at his laptop like it was suddenly the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.
I looked around the room and kept going.
A woman cuddling a sleeping baby | Source: Pexels
“So,” I said calmly, “should I keep sweeping the carpet with my hands while holding your daughter? Or are you going to buy a new vacuum?”
Mason looked like he might actually faint. His eyes darted between me, the broom, and his coworkers. His jaw opened and closed like he couldn’t decide which disaster to address first.
“Can we talk outside?” he said, his voice sharp and low, already standing.
“Of course,” I said with a smile.
A tired man looking at the camera | Source: Pexels
He yanked the door closed behind us hard enough that the glass shook.
“What the hell was that?” he hissed. His face was bright red now, all his calm corporate charm gone.
“That was me being resourceful,” I said. “Like your mom.”
“You embarrassed me!” he snapped, glancing over his shoulder toward the conference room. “That was a client pitch. My boss was in there.”
An angry businessman | Source: Pexels
“Oh, sorry,” I said, cocking my head. “I thought you said this was all part of the job. Housewife stuff. What’s the issue? I’m just doing what you said.”
He ran a hand over his face, frustrated. “I get it, okay? I messed up. I’ll get the vacuum today.”
“No need,” I said. “I already ordered one. With your card.”
I turned and walked out, Lila still crying, broom handle still under my arm.
A baby crying in their mother’s arms | Source: Pexels
Mason got home that night quieter than usual. He didn’t toss his shoes in the hallway. Didn’t drop his keys on the counter like usual. Didn’t even glance at the Xbox.
I was on the couch feeding Lila. The living room was dim except for the glow from a floor lamp and the soft hum of the white noise machine in the corner. He sat down across from me, hands folded like he was waiting to be called into the principal’s office.
A serious man sitting down | Source: Pexels
“I talked to HR today,” he said.
I looked up slowly. “HR?”
He nodded, staring at the carpet like it had answers. “Yeah. About our… situation. I said we were going through an adjustment. Stress at home. Lack of sleep. You know.”
I blinked at him. “You mean, you told your job your wife embarrassed you because she’s tired and doesn’t have a vacuum?”
A woman talking to an annoyed man | Source: Pexels
He rubbed his neck. “That’s not what I said. I just… I didn’t mean to be dismissive, okay? I’ve got a lot going on too.”
I let a beat pass. Lila made a soft grunt in her sleep.
I didn’t yell. Didn’t even raise my voice. I just looked at him and said, calm as ever, “Mason, you’re either a husband and a father, or you’re a roommate with a guilt complex. You decide.”
A woman talking to her husband | Source: Pexels
He opened his mouth like he might argue. Then he closed it. Just nodded slowly, lips pressed together like he was swallowing something bitter.
The next morning, the yacht trip got canceled. He said the guys were “rescheduling,” but I didn’t ask questions. Pretty sure “the guys” didn’t even know it was happening.
A man talking on his phone | Source: Pexels
That week, he vacuumed every rug in the house—twice. He looked like he was fighting a war with the dust bunnies. Didn’t say a word about it.
He changed three diapers without being asked. Took the 3 a.m. bottle shift two nights in a row, even when Lila screamed in his face like she knew he was new at it. He paced the hallway with her until she passed out on his shoulder.
A man on his laptop while holding a baby | Source: Pexels
He even took her for a walk Sunday morning so I could nap. Left a sticky note on the bathroom mirror that said, “Sleep. I’ve got her.”
I didn’t gloat. Didn’t say “told you so.” Didn’t bring up the office.
But the broken broom? Still sitting in the hallway, right where I left it. Just in case he forgets.
A wooden broom | Source: Pexels
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
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