Kyle Buchanan's one-on-one interview with Brad for the NY Times last Sept. 4 is the most in-depth interview Brad has given so far.  In the words of James Gray, Brad "used the stimuli from his life" and "investigated the essence of the character through himself" so his interviews for Ad Astra have provided a steady stream of personal quotes -- on being "better with the people I love", "a better partner, a better dad, a better son."


Combining a few Randoms Fuzzies to see the picture from September, 2016 to-date:


Buchanan wrote that Brad "at first curtailed the inquiry" into the "split"--  which implies that he subsequently opened up but apparently spoke off the record.  "For most of our conversation, Pitt was both penitent and private" -- and he may have been to Buchanan, but little of the "penitent" made it to the printed article.   Brad evidently convinced Buchanan to write that it was "reported" that "they fought about his drinking while aboard a private plane" in lieu of what was actually reported at the time: his altercation with Maddox, the DCFS' 8-week "involvement," and the therapeutic process between him and the children that has ruled their lives the past 3 years.  Those were topics he was not ready to discuss publicly.  What he wanted to mention was Alcoholics Anonymous -- the weekly group therapy sessions he was required to attend under the Custody Stipulation they were "encouraged" to sign by childcare professionals.  It gave him the opportunity to say that he was committed to his sobriety.  Brad hasn't been seen holding any alcoholic beverage in public since September 2016. 

"For me this period has really been about looking at my weaknesses and failures and owning my side of the street."

"This last year, things I wasn't dealing with. I was boozing too much. It's just become a problem."

***

The biggest question obviously is what transpired on that Sept. 14, 2016 plane ride back from Miraval and why it caused such deep and long-lasting damage to Brad's relationship with the kids. And the answer to that would also answer the 2nd biggest question:  why has it taken more than 3X the initial estimate of 6 months to a year to achieve reunification.

The other big question is how different things might have been if the DCFS was never involved.  If the family might have healed faster.  The DCFS met the plane when it landed and interviewed everyone as they stepped off.  What they saw and heard led to their decision to open an investigation for child abuse.  The DCFS regarded Brad as a threat to the children and they put in place a child safety plan and placed a restraining order on Brad, prohibiting him from going near the children or the place where they lived.  That forced Angelina to file the petition in order to comply with DCFS requirements and convince the DCFS she would protect the children from Brad so they wouldn't take the children away and allow them to stay with her.  All communications had to go through their lawyers while the safety plan was in effect.  They jointly hired trauma specialists to immediately treat the children but were otherwise prohibited from having any direct contact.  The process the family is trying to complete is one of the safeguards for the children that the DCFS put in place before it ended it's investigation and cleared Brad of child abuse.

"The job of the DCFS is to make sure the children are in a safe and secure situation. As we said earlier this week, childcare professionals encouraged a legal agreement accepted and signed by both sides that was in the best interest of the children. Angelina said from the beginning that she felt she had to take action for the health of the family and is relieved that after their 8-week involvement, the DCFS is now satisfied the safeguards are put in place that will allow the children to heal."

If the DCFS was never involved, the family would still have the trauma therapists, and the psychiatrist and neuropsychologist, but there would be no lawyers.  The petition would not have been filed without the DCFS.  There would be no court filings to chart their progress or lack thereof.

Brad had wanted to challenge the DCFS's actions in court and his lawyers drafted the S&O to seal (to prevent public disclosure of the DCFS's findings) a week after the petition was filed.  He also wanted to push past the children's therapists and have nontherapeutic visits with the children against their recommendations.  Angelina did not want them to resort to litigation against the DCFS or the therapists in order to rush reunification.  After Brad came around they were able to hire Judge Ouderkirk who officiated at their wedding in Miraval. 

"I was really on my back and chained to a system when Child Services was called."

"It's just very, very jarring for the kids, to suddenly have their family ripped apart. If anyone can make sense of it, we have to."

"Angie's reluctance to enter into a stipulation to seal the file stems from her firm belief that litigation is the wrong decision."

"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, 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"

"And you know, after that, we've been able to work together to sort this out. We're both doing our best."

"I don't like (being single). It's not something I wanted. There’s just nothing nice about it. It’s just hard."

"We care for each other and care about our family, and we are both working towards the same goal.

“None of it’s easy. It’s very, very difficult, a very painful situation, and I just want my family healthy,”

The May 30, 2018 Order contained a Summer Schedule.  A psychiatrist and a neuropsycholgist had taken over from the trauma specialists and designed and directed the Schedule.  The children had fully recovered from the trauma and there was no medical reason for them not to be with Brad, but the children were still distrustful of him, refusing to have any relationship with him or be alone with him.  The Order was an effort at court intervention to force the children to open up to Brad. The Order contained the Court's reassurance to the children that they are safe with their father and an admonition that not having a relationship with him was harmful to them.  The schedule was designed as a two-month intensive bonding boot camp that included weaning the children off their need to have Angelina looking after them to feel safe with Brad.  It was only at the very end of the Summer effort that the children were left entirely alone with Brad with neither the mental health professionals nor Angelina within reach for them. 

Largely as a result of those efforts, by late November, 2018 they had finally made enough progress to be able to have the Judgement on Custody and Visitation.   Angelina told the BBC in December:

(At Home) "I think like most parents, we try our best to insert good stuff.  We can't control everything they're exposed to.  So we try to ask that they will talk to us about anything they saw that bothers them or that they’re concerned about.”

But while things have been "moving along in the right direction,” as of April 2019 they were still short of where Dr. Katz believes they should be and they filed a sealed Judgement on status only.  The court has very strict requirements for sealing court documents and had previously said it "recognized the privacy rights of the minor children and will be guided by what is in the minor children's best interests."  That the court agreed to seal the Judgement and 4 attachments indicates that it is not simply about their legal status but substantially involve the children. 

It should be noted that with two judgements in hand, the whole divorce case could have been easily finalized with a third judgement settling their properties and finances.  Nothing has been filed since April and the case remains open.  For obvious reasons, couples who are in the midst of divorce do not add to their financial entanglements.  That Brad and Angelina have continued to pour millions into joint investments like the DeMille and the expansion of Miraval (the only big investments either of them are known to have made) is just one more indication that they have every intention of remaining partners.  The slick, new Miraval website launched earlier this year states:

"The savoir faire of the Perrin family is united with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's artistic sensitivity.  Together these two formidable forces arouse the exceptional, the unforgettable.  Two forces come together in a unique passion for art."  

Brad and Angelina make up one formidable force.  Partners.  Miraval may now be producing award-winning wines but it is first and foremost their home.

When the Judgement on Custody and Visitation was filed they said "it is not permanent but rather a temporary agreement in place, for now, to keep things moving along in the right direction.”  The Judgement on Status, which they did not specifically acknowledge, would be the same -- both temporary, both intended to move things in the right direction, and both filed with the intention of eventually asking the court to set them aside.

With the filings, they are apparently using a carrot and stick approach that is entirely centered on the children's love for Angelina.

In the May 30 Order, the stick was the children would lose time with Angelina if, at the end of the schedule, they were still seen to be "closed down" to Brad.  That stick worked well because of how much the children value being with her.  Now that they've reconciled with Brad, the carrot is restoring their parents' marriage which they worked long and hard to bring about and which will mean Angelina's last name will again be the same as theirs. 

If the children again want their parents to be married and for their mother to again share the Jolie Pitt name with them, they will need to restore their relationship with their father to what it was leading up to the marriage so they can have the judgements set aside.  It was the kids who prodded them to get married and served as wedding planners: 

“We’re getting a lot of pressure from the kids. It means something to them and they’re, you know, they have questions when their friends’ parents are married and why is that? 

"We’re all just healing from the events that led to the filing.  They’re not healing from divorce. They’re healing from some . . . from life, from things in life.”

Lance Spiegel noted that multiple sources as well as public and private statements from Angelina vouched that Brad had been a great father.  But for all that and all his efforts since, Brad clearly lacked the ability to restore his relationship with the children on his own.  He needed Angelina's active help.

"We are and forever will be a family. I am coping with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer.

Angelina has “tried to bridge the gap between the kids and their dad. She’s worked to achieve reinstatement for them.

After living in Malibu for several months, the children did not want to go back to live in Brad's house in Hollywood Hills.  The DeMille was the rare home near their compound that could satisfy their space and security needs.  They snapped it up as soon as it was listed, setting a new record high for the area.

"(The DeMille) is a big jump forward for us, and we’re all trying to do our best to heal our family."

"All" is the two of them.  It was a major concession for them to accept the need for another home apart from the family compound -- even more than shelling out for a house that many real estate observers thought was overpriced.   It was especially difficult for Brad who had assembled, designed and built the compound that "has always been his kids' childhood home.”  The week that the DeMille went on the market in late March/early April 2017 was also the week of his GQ interview. 

"It's been a more painful week than normal—just certain things have come up"

"It took me a few months to realize that I was really going to have to do it. That there was going to have to be another base regardless of everything,” she said, her voice falling quiet and low, as it would each time the subject of the split arose. “That there was going to have to be a home. Another home.”
“It has a lot of moments,” Ms. Jolie said of the home, “It’s happy. Happy and light, and we needed that.”

Brad had initially struggled to comprehend the full extent of the damage to his relationship with the children and the need to strictly follow the therapeutic process overseen by the therapists.  His efforts in late 2016 to rush the process and obtain nontherapeutic visits when the children were far from ready, accompanied by public posturing and misrepresentation in support of those efforts, would have further upset the children and hindered his progress. 

"When I get in trouble it's because of my hubris."

He got in trouble again in August 2018 just before Angelina and the children were due back in L.A. from London.  That they've always remained a couple does not mean they've never fought.  Brad was again being an "asshole" in a "hallow quest for justice for some perceived slight" and Angelina was upset enough to take their spat public with a request for a case management conference to speed up bifurcation of status (which did not include any reference to the children) and hearings on child support because Brad had not paid his half of the children's expenses.  Bley DeJean's statements were testier than the normally hot-tempered Spiegel's who opposed both requests but was uncharacteristically restrained.  In Spiegel's low key response Brad was obviously trying to cool things down after starting the fire.  His mindless actions came very close to jeopardizing all the gains they made from the May 30 Order coming as it did just before the custody evaluation to review the effects on the children of the Summer effort.  Brad swiftly made amends with Angelina -- he's had a lot of practice -- and she was beaming happily when she arrived in L.A. with the kids just four days later. 

“Everybody knows there is never just the tragedy of life, or the humor of life or pure joy of life. Relationships have those extremes. You can absolutely madly love the same person you want to kill.”

"In the end, you find: I am those things I don't like. I need to face that and take care of that."

Sitting with "horrible feelings" as he grappled with the repercussions of his behavior, a guilt-ridden Brad had spent time creating scenarios of his "fiery demise" and "horrible end."  He credited "a lot of  love" from the beauty in his life and "a lot of love" for her with keeping him from becoming seriously suicidal. 

"A few months ago I was having frightening dreams and I'd consciously lie awake trying to ask, What can I get out of this? What can I learn from this?"

"Sitting with those horrible feelings, and needing to understand them, and putting them into place."

"I know the people who love me know me. And that's enough for me."

"If I'm not creating something, doing something, putting it out there, then I'll just be creating scenarios of fiery demise in my mind. You know, a horrible end."

“I’m not suicidal or something.  There’s still much beauty in the world and a lot of love. And a lot of love to be given."

"Our focus is that everyone comes out stronger and better people—there is no other outcome."

"I have a responsibility to myself and my family to remain true and authentic. I treat people whom I love honestly and sincerely."

"Angelina remains focused on healing her family.  She continues to support the reconciliation of the children with Brad."

"I think it is not said enough how much we need the men in our lives to be strong and capable and the best they can be.”

ca. By the Sea:

“[Brad] made it very, very clear to me that what he loved and what was a woman to him was somebody who was smart, and capable, and cared about her family, that it’s not about your physical body,”

"I feel like you have to really maintain yourself and you have to help the person you are with to be the best version of himself. You need to really stay… [the way] you are and make sure that you are not asking him to bend in a way that is not natural to him."

"I’m happy we did that film (By the Sea) because we did explore something together, and whatever it was, maybe it didn’t solve certain things, but we did communicate something that maybe needed to be communicated to each other.”

She had said:

"We thought, this is the best honeymoon because we felt, as the film says in the end—whatever you go through, weather the storm and stay together. It was a message to each other of we are going to weather whatever comes and we are going to stick together."
"—we have to try to hold tight together, work things out and work things through no matter how bad they get."

“When something happens in your life that’s a dramatic thing, you either pull together or you go into your own,” Jolie Pitt says, referring to By the Sea and the trauma that drives a wedge between Roland and Vanessa. “So many times, people divorce very quickly. To me, if this film has a message, it’s that you have to try to weather the storm together no matter what. And that’s a beautiful thing.”

***

When the May 30 Order leaked, they said the leak was "misleading" and gives an "inaccurate and unfair picture of what is really happening."   Because they agreed to stay within the framework of a divorce case as a safeguard for the children, they must choose from the associated legal filings what they can use to help them achieve "recovery and reunification."  The May 30 Order and the Judgement on Status on the surface appear to be very different legal filings, but both were drafted with the same end goals: to help restore Brad's relationship with the children to what it was before the plane incident. 

In this regard, it is notable that the NY Times' Buchanan wrote only that Angelina "filed for divorce" and totally ignored all developments since the filing including the bifurcated Judgements.  Brad, perhaps during the penitent portion, may have explained the true circumstances behind the filing and that none of the legal steps that followed were real or worth mentioning.  That those filings are merely tools to nudge the children to improve their relationship with him.

In addition to avoiding any reference to the "incident" with Maddox or its aftermath, Buchanan only tangentially mentioned the kids: "he has six children." Buchanan also omitted the most obvious of the "surprising tattoos snaked down his arms" -- the family tattoo flashing every time he raised his arm.  Mention of it would have made a discussion on the family unavoidable and Brad wasn't ready to go there.

"Any of my foibles are born from my own hubris."

"I'm an asshole when it comes to this hollow quest for justice for some perceived slight. It's done me no good whatsoever. And this is coming from a guy who hit the lottery, I'm well aware of that. I hit the lottery, and I still would waste my time on those hollow pursuits"

Brad told Buchanan he "had family stuff going on" -- not personal or marital stuff, because the problem was between him and the kids and not between him and Angelina.  They were never estranged.  They are and have always been together as a couple.  The reconciliation, reinstatement and reunification that needed to occur for the family to again be healthy is between Brad and the children.

While the picture presented in Buchanan's interview is a jigsaw with many missing pieces, in saying that they "fought about his drinking" and then adding that he "removed" his "drinking privileges" and spent a year and a half with Alcoholics Anonymous, Brad is saying that he has removed the cause of the fight and the reason for the split and filing.  Ergo there is no reason for them to be apart.  Brad points to the same conclusion via a much shorter and simpler explanation.  Everything from the cascade of quotes he has given to the visible evidence has made the conclusion obvious and unavoidable.

Since GQ in 2017 Brad has been consistent about what he sees as his need to be more open, accept his flaws and show his weaknesses and vulnerabilities.  In saying "I had taken things as far as I could take it" he is hinting at the extent of the damage inflicted by his abuse of alcohol.  He's prepared to face what people may think. “It’s just ridiculous that we would beat ourselves up that way. It doesn’t matter."  "We should be supporting each other’s growth and missteps, because everyone’s made them to some degree or the other," -- which Angelina echoes, "We’re all human and very flawed."   He is laying the groundwork for his eventual public confession of his "ugly sides," but the time isn't yet right.  For now he is letting people know he had a very serious drinking problem.  The next, more difficult part would be revealing his behavior exacerbated by his drinking and the resulting damage.

Angelina has a full plate of acting projects in various stages of production while Brad's is empty after Ad Astra.

"I try to find time to train.  I'm acting a bit more now because I can't be what my family needs me to be while I'm directing -- it takes a lot more time and effort to direct and I look forward to being able to do that again when things are better."

"Faster alone, further together."

Brad will be home, bonding with the kids and making up for lost time while she works.

"In my younger years I would have.  Now it's: 'How long do I gotta be away from home - my loved ones?'"

"a full acceptance of yourself... peace comes from that. And makes me better with the people I love."

"I think more vulnerability, more getting you arms around your successes and your failures, makes for a better partner, a better dad, a better son."

-- Fussy