It's been almost five years since Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt.

But the events of the past week have served as a potent reminder that the wounds created in the A-list couple's final days together will likely never heal.

And sadly, it's Brad and Angelina's children who seem to have suffered the most.

To the extent that they've been capable, both Brad and Angelina have endeavored to keep the specifics regarding their divorce out of the press.

Despite these efforts, details found their way into the tabloid coverage of the divorce and ensuing custody battle.

Within hours of when news of the split went public, there were reports that Jolie had witnessed an altercation between Pitt and Maddox, the couple's eldest son.

These days, Maddox is a college student who lives most of the year in South Korea.

But his distance has apparently not prevented Maddox from saying his piece during his parents' ongoing custody dispute.

“It wasn’t very flattering toward Brad,” a source told Us Weekly of Maddox's testimony.

The insider added that Maddox no longer uses his father's last name in legal documents, though it's unclear if he has legally changed his name.

“He doesn’t use Pitt as his last name on documents that aren’t legal and instead uses Jolie," the source adds.

"Maddox wants to legally change his last name to Jolie, which Angelina has said she doesn’t support.”

It's unclear what exactly Maddox told the court, but it seems that his testimony had something to do with Jolie's 2016 allegations of domestic violence against Pitt.

This speculation stems from court documents in which Jolie's lawyers state that she is willing to provide “proof and authority in support” of such claims, and that said proof would include offered “testimony of minor children."

While Maddox is no longer a minor, the description may have referred to his age at the time of the incident.

The source points out that the claims against Pitt were already investigated “when they were first divorced in the fall of 2016," adding:

"[Jolie] made similar allegations (about what happened on their plane ride back to the U.S.) which were reported to the authorities and thoroughly investigated before no action was taken."

So it seems that Pitt was already cleared by a police investigation, but criminal and civil matters often require very different degrees of evidence.

Proof that was deemed insufficient by police investigators might be enough to damage Pitt's custody case.

This turnabout comes amid a seriously ugly court battle in which Pitt previously alleged that it was Jolie who was hurting the couple's children by dragging out the proceedings and attracting unnecessary media attention.

Back in August of 2020, Jolie requested a new judge, alleging that the previous one was biased in favor of Pitt.

At the time, attorneys for Pitt alleged that the eleventh-hour maneuver was a result of Jolie's suspicions that the judge's decision would not be in her favor.

We'll have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.