As devoted hubby BRAD PITT nurses ANGELINA JOLIE through her latest cancer ordeal, The National ENQUIRER has discovered a heartbreaking secret feud that tore her family apart.
Angie’s beloved mother, the late Marcheline Bertrand, cruelly banished her step-grandmother from their lives nearly 30 years ago, a source close to the family revealed. Until then, Angie and her brother, James Haven, often visited their grandmother.
But after Marcheline’s father, Rolland, died of cancer in 1985, the surviving family members battled over his will, and Angie never again saw her grandmother Elke.
Now 76 and retired, Elke remains heartbroken at being frozen out of her famous granddaughter’s life, the source revealed exclusively to The ENQUIRER.
“Elke used to see Angelina and James all the time. Marcheline would drive them up from Los Angeles every holiday and in the summer,” the insider added.
In the touching family photos from the early ’80s, a young Angie gazes adoringly at her grandmother over a bouquet of roses on Valentine’s Day, and the two, along with Angie’s brother, pose in clown makeup on Halloween.
“Elke would love to see Angie and James again. She still thinks about them every day,” the source said.
Elke met Rolland on a trip to Europe in 1974 – a year after Marcheline’s mother, Lois, died of cancer at just age 45. The couple wed in 1975 and were happily married for 10 years before cancer claimed Rolland’s life at 61. Rolland left the bulk of his fortune to Elke, while Marcheline and her two siblings received equal shares in a Beverly Hills property, plus the remaining shares of a construction business in Illinois.
But a dispute over Rolland’s personal items led to a court case between Elke and other family members, including Marcheline.
While The ENQUIRER could find no record of the legal wrangle, it’s understood the judge sided with Elke. Marcheline was reportedly so furious that the last time her children saw their step-grandmother was at their g rand f ather’s funeral, said the source.
Years later, Elke remains baffled at Marcheline’s attitude.
“It was just silence from Marcheline – as if Elke had never been part of their lives,” the source divulged.
“Elke has no idea what the children were told about her. When her husband died, she didn’t lose just him. She lost her whole family.”
In a heartbreaking twist, Elke began volunteering as a mentor for abused children after she retired as a family court advocate, said the source. “She started that charity work to fill the void of the grandchildren that she lost.” Meanwhile, cancer continued its rampage through the Bertrand family – with Marcheline dying of ovarian cancer at 56 in 2007. Her brother Roland died of prostate cancer in 2009 at age 53, and her sister succumbed to breast cancer at 61 in 2013.
“The family just got destroyed by cancer,” added the source.
In a desperate bid to avoid the same fate, Angelina – who carries the BRCA1 gene, which puts her at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer – underwent a double mastectomy in May 2013. The courageous 39-year-old star recently revealed she also had her ovaries and fallopian tubes surgically removed.
When contacted by The ENQUIRER, Elke said she still loves Angie and Jamie, and misses them. But she declined to discuss the family feud, saying it was “too long ago.” The source added: “Elke always knew Angelina was special, and she’s very proud of her. She just hopes that Angie and Jamie remember her fondly, and have happy memories of their time together
