Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie both want custody of their six children. Picture: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images

Jolie asked for physical custody of Maddox, 15, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and twins Vivienne and Knox, eight, in divorce documents filed on Monday. She also asked that her husband of two years be granted visitation.

But sources tell People Pitt will fight hard against sole physical custody “for either of them doesn’t seem like what’s best for the children.”

“Brad thinks Angelina is a great mother,” the insider says. “But he is also a great father. There is no way he is going to be absent for any part of his kids’ lives.”

Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have called it quits. Picture: Jason Merritt/Getty ImagesSource:Supplied

In the 12 hours after the story broke, rumours about Pitt’s infidelity, drug taking and bad parenting swirled.

The immediate explanation was Pitt had cheated on Jolie with his co-star, Marion Cotillard, while filming the World War II drama, Allied.

The story, broken by the New York Post, was that Jolie had hired a private eye to spy on the pair. “She felt that he was fooling around ... on the set, and it turns out he was. And that was the final straw,” a source said. Other publications said Pitt wasn’t being a good father.

These claims, reported by TMZ, were that Jolie was sick of him drinking and smoking dope, and was concerned about anger issues.

By late yesterday, TMZ reported Pitt was “furious” that Jolie had both publicly filed for divorce and “spun rumours”.

Amid reports Jolie’s PR team has created a war room in a Los Angeles home as she prepares to take on Pitt, he told friends not to say anything negative about her.

Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt, citing irreconcilable differences. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images for Paramount PicturesSource:Supplied

SPLIT CAME AFTER ‘ONE SHOCKING INCIDENT’

The PR machines of both camps are furiously at work after Jolie claimed control of the narrative from the outset by putting her story in court documents: she was splitting from Pitt for “irreconcilable differences”.

Sources claim Jolie decided to leave her partner of 12 years after “one shocking incident”, which has not been revealed.

“The final divorce decision was only made one week ago. An incident took place and prompted [Angelina] to act and file,” an insider told Us Weekly. “She still says Brad is the love of her life, and the decision has weighed heavy on her heart. Her priority now is the children.”

The source also said Pitt discovered his wife had started divorce proceedings on the day she filed the papers and a day before news of the split broke.

While many have speculated that Pitt’s Allied co-star Marion Cotillard played a part in the split, a source said, “Marion was not the reason for the divorce.”

Brad Pitt plays Max Vatan and Marion Cotillard plays Marianne Beausejour in the movie Allied. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

TMZ’s Harvey Levin also said the demise of Brangelina had nothing to do with the French actress.

“Something happened last week where she (Jolie) reached a breaking point and that’s why on Thursday she separated from him, on Friday she went to a lawyer, on Monday they had filed for divorce, it happened like that,” Levin said in a Facebook video. “Something happened last week that pushed her over the line.”

He also said: “This is about Brad Pitt, weed, alcohol, his anger problems and how the combination of those things affect his interaction with their six kids.

“And that’s what this is about, it’s not about a third person, it’s not about another woman. It is about the kids and that’s why she did it, that’s why she did it abruptly.”

JOLIE, PITT SEPARATED AT WAX MUSEUM

London’s Madame Tussauds museum has separated its wax figure replicas of Jolie and Pitt after the Hollywood power couple announced their split.

“We reacted quickly to yesterday’s news of the separation of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and their plans to divorce by mirroring the separation in the attraction,” a Madame Tussauds spokesperson said.

“The couple’s wax figures, which were launched in 2013, have been split up and are now featured at a respectful distance from each other. Angelina is keeping Nicole Kidman company and Brad Pitt is with his several time co-star Morgan Freeman.”

Wax figures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Sydney. Picture: SuppliedSource:News Limited

Wax figures of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in New York in 2006. Picture: SuppliedSource:AP

THE PERFECT FACADE COMES CRASHING DOWN

From the outside, they were a Hollywood power couple, traversing the world as a philanthropic glamour pair, moving seamlessly from movie sets and red carpets to refugee camps and disaster zones.

But the perfect facade has come crashing down, and the couple’s marriage could end in a fierce and public PR war.

Jolie and Pitt made their public debut as a married couple in Australia in Nov­ember 2014 at the Sydney premiere of Unbro­ken. Their first fight as a married couple also went public when they were snapped arguing on a hotel balcony.

Angelina Jolie, Miyavi, Melody Ishihara and Brad Pitt at the Australian premiere of Unbroken at The State Theatre in Sydney. Picture: Richard DobsonSource:News Corp Australia

They had cemented their 10-year relationship by exchanging wedding vows in France three months prior.

A decade earlier, the pair first captured the world’s attention after meeting on the set of film Mr & Mrs Smith, while Pitt was reportedly still married to Jennifer Aniston.

Since 2005, they morphed into the ideal of an American philanthropic power couple with their patchwork family of six children — three adopted — and their charity work.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Mr & Mrs Smith. Picture: SuppliedSource:News Corp Australia

They started their own charity foundation, and were famously involved in rebuilding homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Jolie started working for the United Nations in 2000 and became a special envoy for the UN high commissioner for refugees in 2012. She also raised awareness about breast and ovarian cancer when she opted to have a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 because she carried the cancer-causing BRCA gene.

News of the split of one of Tinseltown’s most glamorous couples reverberated around the globe, with headlines ­lamenting “the day love died”.

Just hours after news broke, Pitt released a statement in which he begged for privacy.

“I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the wellbeing of our kids,” he said. “I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time.”

The Maleficent actress’s lawyer Robert Offer said in a statement: “This decision was made for the health of the family. She will not be commenting, and asks that the family be given its privacy at this time.”

Jolie also released a second statement, this time through her manager, Geyer Kosinski: “Angelina will always do what’s in the best interest to protect her children. She appreciates everyone’s understanding of their need for privacy at this time.”