Brangelina divorce: Melissa Etheridge hopes Brad Pitt ‘reaches back out’, calls abuse accusations ‘completely unfounded’
“There are a lot of us who haven’t seen him in 10 years,” Melissa Etheridge told Andy Cohen of Brad Pitt.
Melissa Etheridge is #TeamBrad.
During Andy Cohen Live Monday, the rocker commented on Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s headline-grabbing split.
“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, because 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 and just how you’re going to put disinformation out there first,” said Etheridge, who went through a custody battle with ex Tammy Lynn Michaels.
“Right, and going to TMZ and saying child abuse…” Cohen added.
“Nobody does that,” Etheridge said, referencing the website’s report that Pitt’s allegedly abusive behavior prompted Jolie to file for divorce in September. “You don’t do that.”
“And it’s hard to erase that accusation, even if it’s just an accusation,” Cohen continued.
“Completely unfounded,” Etheridge said. “It’s really heartbreaking to see that.”
The Come to My Window singer was close with Pitt and first wife, Jennifer Aniston, even performing during their 2000 wedding.
But after Pitt and Jolie coupled up in 2003, the pals stopped talking.
“I really hope that he reaches back out because there are a lot of us who haven’t seen him in 10 years, and it was hard then,” Etheridge said. “We all lost a friend.”
Etheridge’s history with Jolie was already fraught, she admitted.
Before Jolie and Billy Bob Thorton married in 2000, the Swing Blade star had been engaged to Etheridge’s close friend, actress Laura Dern. Dern has maintained that Jolie and Thorton got together while she was still engaged to the Fargo actor.
“I was around when Angelina was not doing nice things with Billy Bob to Laura Dern. I went through that on a personal level, and then to know the side of Jennifer and Brad…” she trailed off.
After that interview, Etheridge appeared on Watch What Happens Live to perform an epic ode to Jolie’s “fixer” Judy Smith, the inspiration for Kerry Washington’s character Olivia Pope on Scandal.
Listen to the new clip below for Cohen’s behind-the-scenes scoop on the now viral video.
Andy Cohen Live airs Mondays at 10 a.m. ET on SiriusXM Radio Andy (Ch. 102).
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