Melissa Etheridge is weighing in on her friend Brad Pitt’s family situation, and is not holding back her negative views of Angelina Jolie.
The singer, a longtime friend of Pitt’s, sang at his wedding to Jennifer Aniston, and certainly takes Brad’s side in his divorce with Angelina.
Etheridge says she’s heartbroken at the news surrounding the divorce, telling Andy Cohen on his Sirius XM radio show Monday morning.
“It breaks my heart that anyone would take something as personal as your marriage and your relationship and your rights to your children.”
“And do it as purposefully as I see it’s being done,” she said.
Etheridge, who went through an ugly split with Tammy Lynn Michaels in 2010, criticized Jolie and her legal team for how they’re handling this.
“There’s a way to be. I’ve gone through family courts.”
“I’ve been twice around this block, and I know it really well, and I know when there’s some forethought to just how mean [you can be].”
Jolie, she says, is putting “disinformation out there first.”
Asked by Cohen about allegations that Pitt got verbally abusive and physical with his son, Etheridge called them “completely unfounded.”
Melissa acknowledges that she hasn’t seen Brad or spoken to him in some time, but won’t back down from her criticisms of Angelina.
“I really hope he reaches back out because there are a lot of us who haven’t seen him in 10 years,” Etheridge said. “And it was hard then.”
“We all lost a friend.”
Ouch. #JolieBurn
The singer added that “nasty” behavior from Jolie is par for the course, and she knows it from experience that predates Brad Pitt even.
“I was around when Angelina was not doing nice things with Billy Bob to Laura Dern,” Etheridge said, referencing Jolie’s first marriage.
Billy Bob Thornton, who at the time was engaged to Etheridge’s friend Laura Dern, eventually broke up with her and married the actress.
“I went through that on a personal level, and then to know the side of Jennifer [Aniston] and Brad…” she said, telling People magazine:
“I helped Laura move out of her house with Billy Bob. I like broke into their home to get their stuff out because it was so nasty.”
A source close to Jolie, meanwhile, counters that Angelina won’t pursue child abuse claims and is only acting in the interests of her kids.
“Angelina did what she felt she needed to do,” said the source, though it’s clear people in Pitt’s camp would take serious issue with that.