More than two and a half years after Angelina Jolie first filed for divorce, she and Brad Pitt are about to be single again.
A judge ruled that the stars can go back to being legally single before they finalize their divorce settlement — a legal move known as bifurcation that Jolie, 43, and Pitt, 55, requested, according to court documents filed Friday.
“Both parents are focused on what’s best for the kids,” a source tells PEOPLE. They have six children together: Maddox, 17, Pax, 15, Zahara, 14, Shiloh, 12, and 10-year-olds Vivienne and Knox. The filing was first reported by The Blast.
Jolie and Pitt first met while making their 2005 action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith and began publicly dating a few months after the movie premiered. in January 2006, the couple told PEOPLE Jolie was pregnant.
In 2014 they married in a small ceremony at their chateau in the South of France. Just two years later, in September 2016, Jolie filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
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Since then, the two have been in ongoing negotiations over custody and dividing their finances. In June 2018, a judge established a detailed schedule for Pitt to spend time with the children (except Maddox, who according to the court is old enough to decide for himself how much time he wants to spend with his father).
In November 2018, the pair reached a temporary child custody agreement, which a source told PEOPLE at the time was “to keep things moving along in the right direction.”
Since then, what previously been an acrimonious process has instead remained peaceful — and out of the public eye.
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The agreement came after the former couple asked for another extension to retain their private temporary judge, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE. Judge John Ouderkirk was extended to their divorce case until Dec. 31, 2019.
The two continued to use a court-approved therapist, Dr. Stan Katz.
While Pitt gears up for the July release of his next movie,