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Breaking up a union that lasted just long enough to provide volumes of tabloid fun, Angelina Jolie surprised dozens by filing for divorce from hubby Billy Bob Thornton. Cultureshark has learned the reason for the split: the notoriously phobic Thornton apparently discovered he is afraid of babies.
"Billy Bob was terrified of him," says an insider of the couple's recently adopted 11-month-old Cambodian son, Maddox. Thornton has children from previous unions and apparently has been able to tolerate them without incident, but something in the new child triggered something in the often-neurotic actor.
"I went out with him one night when he had to get out of the house," continues our source. "He was shaking like a leaf. All he kept talking about was how slobbery and slimy the baby was. I think he was afraid there were some kind of germs in the kid's drool." The man, who has known Thornton for some time, also confirmed the report that the star of films such as Sling Blade and Armageddon was "creeped out' by baby food. "The idea of his food being anywhere near baby food sent chills down his spine."
Other sources report Jolie tried a confrontational approach, locking her husband and new child in a room together, but she couldn't stand the loud crying. Thornton's tears stopped when she opened the door, but the damage was done. A Jolie associate confirms she didn't want to choose between the baby and her son, but the intensity of Thornton's fears forced her hand. "She knew it would never work once he refused to go in their bedroom because the baby had been on the carpet. She had been able to take the fears of antique furniture, zydeco musicians, and Hanna Barbera cartoons, but this was too much."
Jolie is expected to seek full custody of the child, while Thornton is expected to grant it gladly in exchange for the couple's knife collection.
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