Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ‘in better place’ after ‘family therapy’ 

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s frosty relationship has allegedly begun to thaw.

The exes, who endured a shock split in 2016 and an ugly custody battle in the years since, are in a better place now in regards to co-parenting than ever, according to PEOPLE on Wednesday.

‘It’s taken them a long time, with a lot of family therapy, to get to this point,’ said the magazine’s source. 

Ex appeal: Brad Pitt [R, in February 2020] and Angelina Jolie’s [L, in 2019] frosty relationship has allegedly begun to thaw

Part of the reason for the therapy is to help work out how Pitt, 56, ‘could be a dad again’.

Making things easier is the fact that the couple’s children, Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, and Knox, 11, and daughters Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and Vivienne, 11 ‘are no longer dealing with separation issues from Angie,’ continued the source.

And since Brad and Angelina live close to one another in Los Angeles, ‘the younger kids go back and forth between their houses.’ 

Last last month in a DailyMail.com exclusive, Brad was photographed leaving Angelina’s mansion in Los Feliz, an early sign that their equation with each other was improving. 

Better all the time: The exes, who endured a shock split in 2016 and an ugly custody battle in the years since, are in a better place now in regards to co-parenting than ever, according to PEOPLE on Wednesday. Seen here with kids [L-R] Pax, Maddox, Shiloh, Vivienne and Knox in 2014

Although they got together in 2005 they waited until 2014 to get married, only for Angelina to file for divorce in September 2016.

Since then they have battled legally over custody and finances, with Angelina reportedly demanding more money than Brad wanted to give.

Living arrangements also became a sticking point as Brad was allegedly preventing Angelina from moving out of the country with their children.

‘I would love to live abroad and will do so as soon as my children are 18,’ she told Harper’s Bazaar late last year for their December/January issue. ‘Right now I’m having to base where their father chooses to live.’ 

Dark days: ‘It’s taken them a long time, with a lot of family therapy, to get to this point,’ said the magazine’s source. Seen here in 2015

Brad has confessed to having been an alcoholic before Angelina left him but he has since gotten sober, and last year a judge granted him more time with the children.

The Maleficent star gave birth to Vivienne and Knox in Nice, less than 200km from her and Brad’s Chateau Miraval in the South Of France.

Angelina and Brad went to Namibia for Shiloh’s birth and had the government enforce a no-fly zone over the area they were in.

An official at Namibia’s Washington embassy dished at that time: ‘The government has decided that it will issue visas to journalists to go to Namibia and cover Angelina and Brad if they have consent from the parties.’

Doing it for the kids: Brad has confessed to having been an alcoholic before Angelina left him but he has since gotten sober, and last year a judge granted him more time with the children. Seen here with Pax, Shiloh and Maddox in 2014

Near the start of this year’s coronavirus lockdowns Angelina donated $1 million to No Kid Hungry, a organization to feed underprivileged children and their families.

She has worked extensively with the United Nations and co-wrote a Time essay published in March plugging UNESCO’s new Global Education Coalition, which was started to facilitate remote education as schools closed around the world.

Angelina has jetted around the world in service of various causes and in 2012 got special envoy status from the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees.

Ground zero: Pitt and Jolie met and fell in love on the set of their 2005 film Mr and Mrs Smith [pictured]