Has Brad Pitt ever looked more improbably handsome? Out in LA this week with girlfriend Ines de Ramon, some 29 years his junior, Pitt was an A-lister in his prime, from his modish moustache to his oh-so-chiselled jaw.
Indeed, Hollywood plastic surgeons even reported a boom in requests from male patients to have their salivary glands removed to create a sharper jawline after the release of the phenomenally successful Pitt film F1 last summer, in which he played washed-up racing driver Sonny Hayes.
At 62, he remains an iconic figure for young and old: men still want to be him, women still want to be with him.
At least, most men and women. Because despite his popularity with friends, colleagues and the public at large, Pitt is now completely estranged from all of his six children from his former marriage to Angelina Jolie.
Not one of these young adults – their three adopted children Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, and Zahara, 21, and Pitt’s biological children Shiloh, 19, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 17 – have any meaningful relationship with him, something those close to him place firmly at the feet of Jolie.
Her actions, they say, mean the most desired man in Hollywood is now a total pariah to his own children.
A friend confirms this state of affairs to me, saying: ‘There has been a campaign of alienation [by Jolie] which has been successful.
‘The antagonism is huge. He has been alienated from the kids completely. It is devastating to him.’
Brad Pitt pictured with his much-younger girlfriend Ines de Ramon at an event in Los Angeles on Tuesday night
Pitt and Jolie had one of Hollywood’s highest-profile romances until their shock split in 2016 – pictured 2014
Jolie with their children, from left, Shiloh, Zahara, Vivienne, Maddox and Knox
Only the twins are under 18 and thus required to submit to court-mandated visits from Pitt – a condition of his divorce settlement with Jolie.
Despite this, he’s barely seen them at all this year.
That’s partly because he has been working – but also because, like the rest of his children, the twins want nothing to do with him.
As they turn 18 in July, one can imagine whatever limited contact they have with their father may dry up further after that.
The incident which caused this brutal schism took place in September 2016 and saw the actor come within a well-groomed whisker of being cancelled completely.
It was alleged that, while the family were travelling on a private jet, a drunken Pitt poured beer and wine on his family, told the children their mother was ‘crazy’, punched the ceiling of the plane, shoved Jolie and ‘choked’ a child.
He has always denied all allegations of domestic abuse.
He has since recovered his career to a degree, which reflects the fact that he has many close and powerful friends in Tinseltown.
Indeed, he won the first acting Oscar of his career for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood in 2020.
But his personal life remains indelibly marked by that incident and its aftermath.
This was all too clear after his adoptive daughter Zahara graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday.
Receiving a BA in psychology, she was cheered by Jolie and some of her siblings – but there was no sign of Pitt.
Celebrity gossip website TMZ reported: ‘Brad Pitt’s estrangement from his daughter Zahara has not cooled off… with sources telling TMZ that the actor did not reach out ahead of her graduation from Spelman.’
It went on: ‘A source close to Angelina tells TMZ, “Zahara’s mom and siblings, who have been involved over the four very special years, were present and cheering her and her Spelman sisters on”.
‘The source added, “Nothing prevented him from showing up for her. Or ever visiting her. The day was about all she accomplished. Not whether he was willing to attend”.
‘Sources tell us Brad didn’t contact anyone about getting a ticket to her graduation ceremony last weekend.’
Receiving a BA in psychology, Zahara was cheered by Jolie and some of her siblings – but there was no sign of Pitt
Zahara – like brothers Pax and Maddox – has not had a close relationship with Pitt since his split from Angelina in 2016
This story has provoked fury in the Pitt camp, with one insider telling me: ‘You can’t have it both ways – to promote a complete estrangement and then criticise someone for not going to an event when you’ve made sure that they would not be welcome.
‘That’s not a situation which he created’.
Words such as ‘evil’ and ‘manipulative’ are also thrown around when referring to Jolie.
But Zahara evidently has a deep bond with her actress and humanitarian mother.
Speaking at a sorority event this month, she called Jolie ‘the most selfless, loving and understanding woman’.
Zahara – like brothers Pax and Maddox – has not had a close relationship with Pitt since his split from Angelina in 2016.
Adopted at seven months by Jolie, then by Pitt during their relationship, Zahara removed Pitt from her last name when she was in college and began going by Zahara Jolie. The same is true of all the children.
First to drop Pitt’s name appears to have been Maddox, the Cambodian orphan whom Jolie adopted when she was briefly married to actor Billy Bob Thornton.
It was Maddox who was at the centre of conflict on that fateful jet flight.
Pitt was said to have accused his wife of ‘ruining’ the family because of the way she was raising Maddox, whom he referred to as a ‘Columbine kid’ – an apparent allusion to the notorious 1999 school shooting. Maddox is widely said to openly detest Pitt.
Next came Pax – adopted by Jolie in 2007 and later by Pitt – who called Brad a ‘terrible person’ in a social media rant in 2016.
He added: ‘You have no consideration or empathy toward your four youngest children who tremble in fear when in your presence.
‘You will never understand the damage you have done to my family because you’re incapable of doing so.’
He also goes by Pax Jolie in his work as a film producer.
Jolie and Pitt’s son Maddox Jolie has dropped from his father’s last name, months after his sister Shiloh made the same move; seen in 2013
Last year, Shiloh (R), who was born Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, legally changed her name to Shiloh Jolie shortly after turning 18
Hard-partying Pax ran into the back of a car while riding his e-bike last year, ending up in intensive care with ‘complex trauma’ including a brain bleed and head and hip injury.
Witnesses reportedly thought Pax – who wasn’t wearing a helmet – was dead and it is said that first responders saved his life. Jolie was by his side in hospital and all five siblings visited – but not Pitt.
Shiloh, who for a time was known as ‘John’ and dressed as a boy, filed a petition in court to legally drop Pitt as her last name on her 18th birthday. She is a talented dancer and choreographer.
Sources in the Jolie camp claimed that she had found and funded a lawyer herself to cut out the Pitt name – a cruel swipe at her father if that is the case.
Even Vivienne, not yet 18, chose to go under the name of Jolie when she was involved in a musical adaptation last year.
It seems Pitt, though, has not given up hope of reuniting with all of his children, adopted and biological.
A friend says: ‘He continues to hope that one day a reconciliation is possible.’
The example of Alec Baldwin, who once infamously raged at daughter Ireland that she was a ‘thoughtless pig’, is cited.
That father-daughter relationship was destroyed in the fallout of a toxic divorce between Baldwin and actress Kim Basinger, but he and Ireland are now close.
‘There’s a hope that in time they will all find each other,’ I am told.
Sadly, though, it seems further division is inevitable, as Jolie plans to leave LA in the very near future.
This month, she put her historic Beaux-Arts mansion up for sale. Purchased immediately after their split, it is on sale for a shade under $30million.
Pax, Jolie, Zahara and Maddox in New York in September 2024
Her plan appears to be to leave LA, where Pitt chiefly lives, and split her time between Europe – most likely Paris – and Cambodia, a country with which she feels a kinship and from where she adopted Maddox. She already has a house there. Some of the adult children will stay behind in New York, where they are based in an apartment in the city.
Jolie told The Hollywood Reporter in August 2024 of her plans to leave the city as soon as her youngest children hit their milestone 18th birthday – now a matter of weeks away – as her residency there was a stipulation in her custody agreement with Pitt.
‘I grew up in this town. I am here because I have to be here from a divorce but as soon as they’re 18, I’ll be able to leave,’ Jolie said, before explaining that she has not yet decided where she will settle down.
‘When you have a big family, you want them to have privacy, peace, safety… that humanity that I found across the world is not what I grew up with here. [After Los Angeles] I’ll spend a lot of time in Cambodia. I’ll spend time visiting my family members wherever they may be in the world,’ she continued.
She hinted France might be the place to settle last year, saying: ‘I find it very enriching as an artist and as a woman to be in France. I feel that more of myself comes out here. The conversations seem deeper and more enriching to me.’
Since their divorce in 2024 – they were married ten years previously, after reportedly getting together while Pitt was married to first wife Jennifer Aniston – Jolie seems to have been single, apart from a dalliance with Canadian singer The Weeknd in 2021.
Meanwhile, Pitt has been dating jewellery designer Ines since 2022. They have been living together for more than a year and went ‘red carpet official’ at the premiere of the film Wolfs at the Venice film festival two years ago.
Maddox seen above on Pitt’s shoulders in 2006 while Jolie carries Zahara in her arms
Fluent in French, English, German, Spanish and Italian, Ines is a sophisticated divorcee from a wealthy European background.
With a business degree from the University of Geneva, and knowledgeable about wine, fashion and music, one imagines that she more than holds her own at any high-powered Hollywood dinner.
And there will be many of those, as Pitt’s career has never been on better ground. F1 was the highest grossing film of his career, introducing him to a new, younger audience and earning him $40million.
‘He is without question one of the biggest movie stars in the world,’ says an associate. ‘No question – and he does not take that for granted.’
Meanwhile, he has three films in the can, two of which are ready to release and attracting awards chatter.
Chief among them is Heart Of The Beast, a gritty survival drama in which he plays a man who crashes his plane in Alaska, with only his dog for company.
It’s said to showcase him as a serious actor, much as Tom Hanks’ Cast Away did, bringing Hanks an Oscar nomination in 2001.
The question at this point, then, is whether his ongoing serious romance will lead to Pitt’s third marriage.
Alas, the answer is a firm ‘no’. Marriage, say Pitt’s camp, is not on the cards. Although Pitt and de Ramon are very happy, and he enjoys the ‘peace’ and ‘support’ of his ‘easygoing’ girlfriend, friends say they can’t see him getting married again or having more children.
‘He has a great partner who he appreciates but there is no rush in that direction,’ says a source.
Given the heartbreak over his children with Jolie, who could blame him?
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