Friends of Brad Pitt have spoken of his despair at being separated from his three adopted children – and are blaming his ex-wife Angelina Jolie, who they claim has carried out “textbook parental alienation”.
Maddox, 22, Pax, 19, and Zahara, 18, are all believed to be estranged from their adoptive father – only his three biological children Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 15, see him under a custody agreement still.
Over the weekend, Zahara attended a sorority induction event at Spelman College in Atlanta and gave her name as Zahara Jolie rather than Zahara Jolie-Pitt, her real name.
Both Maddox and Pax are said to have dropped the Pitt name in informal contexts “years ago.”
Maddox, who completed his college studies in South Korea, is said to have not spoken to Pitt since the 2016 incident on a private plane that ended Jolie and Pitt’s marriage and is apparently openly hostile, saying that he is “Brad does not appreciate”. as his father no more.
On Tuesday, reported how a bombshell Instagram post from Pax had resurfaced in which he called Pitt a “f***ing terrible human being” and added: “You continue to prove that you are a terrible and despicable human being.”
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are pictured with their children Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Vivienne and Knox at Tokyo Haneda International Airport in 2011. Pitt and Jolie separated in 2016 after more than a decade of marriage
Angelina Jolie arrives at JFK Airport with Pax earlier this year. Friends of Brad Pitt have spoken of his despair at being separated from his three adopted children
Maddox, 22, Pax, 19, and Zahara, 18, are all believed to be estranged from their adoptive father – only his three biological children Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 15, see him under a custody agreement still
On Tuesday, a bombshell Instagram post from Pax resurfaced in which he called Pitt a “fucking terrible human being.”
“You have no consideration or compassion for your four youngest children, who tremble in fear in your presence.
“You will never understand the harm you have caused to my family because you are incapable of doing so.”
Friends of the former couple do not deny that the teenager made the comments posted on Pax’s personal Instagram account, but say they were made over three years ago.
Some claim that they bring to light the toxic things their children have been told.
One said: “Releasing the Instagram post is sad and frustrating because it doesn’t make things better.”
“Even if what is being said is bad for him, Brad would only ever respect the children’s voices.” He will never speak negatively about them and will almost never speak about them in public.
“There’s no question he would fight back.”
The friend added: “There is a feeling among her friends that the post is a perfect example of parental alienation – I mean, this is a textbook demonstration of parental alienation.”
“Brad’s team assumes she’s been playing these games for years, but they don’t want to get into a fight with her.”
“For years she has told and re-told the same toxic things about him and the reality is that she has alienated the children and the reality is that it upsets Brad.”
“He takes care of them all. It’s devastating.”
A source on Jolie’s side familiar with the matter said: “Brad Pitt has no one to blame but himself.” “All Angelina wants is to heal her family and move on, but he won’t let her go.”
Pitt’s friend added that custody of the six children now only concerns the three youngest – Shiloh, who is 17, and Knox and Vivienne, 15.
These children are subject to a shared custody agreement that gives Jolie more time than Pitt.
Pax Jolie-Pitt called his father a “horrible and despicable human being” who left his four youngest children “trembling with fear” in a rant on Father’s Day 2020. Pictured: Angelina Jolie and Pax attending the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards in January 2018
The couple’s shared custody agreement gives 17-year-old Shiloh (far left) and 15-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne (center, far right) more time with Jolie than with Pitt
Pitt reportedly spends extended periods of time with them on weekends and during school holidays. Jolie has complained that she would like to move but the family has to stay in America because Pitt wants to live there.
Pax, 19, was adopted by Angelina Jolie in 2006 at the age of three after spending his early years in a Vietnamese orphanage
He is said to have a close relationship with Shiloh, who enjoys dancing, and she has made some attempts to act as a peacemaker between Pitt and her older siblings.
In interviews last year while promoting the film Bullet Train, he reflected on his “beautiful” girl growing up and talked about how talented she was at dance, unlike Mr Two Left Feet Here.” He also spoke of his admiration and love for Zahara and his pride in her academic achievements.
Friends of Jolie said the family was somewhat surprised by Zahara’s move over the weekend, but pointed out that she and her mother were very close.
One said: “It was a very meaningful day for her and she let them know she wanted to do this.”
Zahara advised Angelina on her clothing range for the soon-to-be-launched fashion company Atelier Jolie.
She also accompanied her on a lobbying visit to Washington last year and was present at meetings with lawmakers where Jolie proposed various justice reforms.
Pax is now also involved in Atelier Jolie and designed the logo.
He and his older brother Maddox also worked with Jolie on the film Without Blood, which she directed in Europe earlier this year.
According to People magazine, both received jobs as assistant directors, although they are not listed on IMDB. Jolie commented, “We work well together.” “When a film crew is at its best, it feels like a big family, so it feels natural.”
A friend of Pitt’s claims Jolie carried out “textbook parental alienation” to exclude him (pictured: Pax, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt and Knox Leon Jolie-Pitt in 2019)
A friend of Pitt said: “As far as custody goes, the legal team continues to be patient. It’s just frustrating because people always focus on the wrong things. “Nothing has changed about custody.”
The pal added of Pitt, who has been dating jeweler Ines de Ramon for a year: “He’s doing great in many ways.” People seem to be excited about the Formula 1 film and production is back on there. His film company Plan B is doing great. There are many things in his life that are good. Apparently they are not all good because of family matters. It’s obviously very annoying. He really cares about the children.’
The romance with Jolie always included his possible role as stepfather and father to her children. When they first met on the set of the film Mr. and Mrs. Brad Pitt (and he was still married to Jennifer Aniston), he met Angelina Jolie’s little son Maddox.
Film sources said at the time that Jolie would show up at Pitt’s trailer and tell him, “Maddox would like to say hello.” Pitt, then 42, was enchanted – by the boy and his mother.
Angelina Jolie started her family in 2002. After filming Tomb Raider in Cambodia, she decided to adopt a Cambodian orphan, even though her marriage to Billy Bob Thornton was already rocky. She later said, “Before I adopted, our marriage was failing, and when Maddox came home, Billy and I were separated.”
In 2004, as the scandal surrounding Brad’s failed marriage raged, she was seen playing with Maddox in Central Park and looking like a doting mother.
Angelina Jolie pictured with her first adopted son Maddox in July 2005
Angelina and Brad built perhaps the ultimate dysfunctional household for their six children
Adoption was the path Jolie chose. “If I had a child of my own, I would feel like there was a child out there who didn’t have a home because of my choice to have a baby,” she told an interviewer in 2005.
This year she adopted Zahara, a baby from Ethiopia – supported by Brad Pitt. The last adoption was in 2007, when three-year-old Pax joined the family. Pitt legally adopted all three.
When Jolie became a mother, her own mother, Marcheline Bertrand, battled a long and devastating battle with breast cancer. She died in 2007 at the age of 56 after being diagnosed in 1999.
She was close to her mother, but never to her father, who had abandoned her when she and her brother James were young and had been unfaithful, leaving everyone emotionally scarred.
Around the time she adopted Pax, Voight implored her to seek help for the “serious symptoms of real problems” he believed she was exhibiting. He added bluntly: “She was never normal.”
She and Brad built perhaps the ultimate dysfunctional household for their six children.
Both worked part-time and the whole family traveled all over the world for years. They once settled in New Orleans and France and served as temporary homes for countless hotels.
Brad struggled with the relationship and the spotlight; He drank heavily and said more than once that he would wake up still drunk from the previous night. His friend Quentin Tarantino alluded to his habit of smoking weed, which Jolie disapproved of. (He gave up alcohol after breaking up with Jolie)
A hotel employee, Anna Kowalski, claimed that as early as 2010, Angelina and Brad habitually slept in separate rooms and had little to do with each other, with Angelina sitting alone in the suite bedroom drinking wine and Brad sitting in another room with a beer.
Brad struggled with the relationship and the spotlight during his marriage to Jolie
Jolie and Pitt reportedly hired a separate nanny for each of their six children
As the children grew older, Jolie discovered a passion for charitable missions and brought it with her. Zahara and Shiloh were taken to Ethiopia to scout locations for a medical center, Maddox traveled to Iraq as a birthday present.
There were no rules at home, except that the children were not encouraged to make friends outside the family circle – and the children ruled the roost.
For example, adopted son Maddox was interested in guns and knives from a young age and his mother reportedly bought a knife from a martial arts store for his seventh birthday.
Soon after, he drew a picture of a machine gun on the Mother’s Day card – and Pitt apparently had the picture made into a gold piece of jewelry that he hung on a chain. Angelina said in an interview, “He’s really into war and guns.” So for Mother’s Day he drew a machine gun and Brad had it made into a necklace, which is really cute. It’s really sweet.’
She added: “My mother took me to buy my first daggers when I was 11 or 12 and I’ve already bought some for Maddox.”
For a time, Maddox enjoyed speaking French, although the rest of the family, with the exception of his mother and brother Pax, struggled with the language.
For a time, Shiloh called himself just John and wore boys’ clothes, including ties and fedora hats. The habit came about because of her passion for the Peter Pan movie.
A former nanny who quit out of desperation reportedly said the children insisted on pizza or chocolate for breakfast and enjoyed a diet of junk food, particularly Cheetos.
It was thought that the number of nannies varied between six and nine, with one child at a time being the primary duty. When Shiloh was three and Zahara was five, they both carried blankets, even on the way to the grocery store.
Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their children leave the Cipriani Hotel in Venice by boat in happier times
In legal documents, Jolie said Pitt hit and choked the children, as well as assaulting them and drunkenly slamming them on the roof of the plane – Pitt denies those claims
As the marriage entered its final year, her brother James moved in with Angelina and Brad after being hired as head nanny.
He was her great support – who can forget their disturbing kiss on the Oscars red carpet in 2000 – and there is evidence that James’ presence fueled the tensions that ended the marriage.
One source even told me that relations between the two men of the house were so bad that Brad made James fly economy class while the rest of the family was in first class. Some magazines suggested that by the summer of 2016, the younger children had gotten into the habit of calling James “Dad.”
And then there was this shocking – and controversial – incident on a plane. In legal documents, Jolie said Pitt hit and choked the children, as well as assaulting them and drunkenly punching the roof of the plane. It was alleged that he once poured beer on his wife, while also pouring beer and red wine on the children.
Pitt denies the claims. The allegations were investigated by the FBI at the time, but no charges were filed
Five days later, Jolie filed for divorce – shortly after the second anniversary of their wedding – and requested sole custody of their six children.
A lawyer for Pitt said he has taken responsibility for some things in his past but would not take responsibility for things he did not do. Another source close to the actor dismissed Jolie’s report as “bulls***” and claimed her story was “constantly evolving.”
The source added, “She continues to rethink, revise and rethink her description of an event that happened six years ago, adding completely untrue information every time she doesn’t get what she wants,” sources at Pitt Camps called the release of the information a “media stunt to inflict pain.”
Five days after the alleged incident, Jolie filed for divorce – shortly after the second anniversary of their wedding
Since the separation, there have been years of court-ordered therapy for the children, who shuttle back and forth between their feuding parents
Since the separation, there has been years of court-ordered therapy for the children, who shuttle back and forth in chauffeur-driven cars between their feuding parents in their respective homes in LA, accompanied by security guards.
Angelina has custody, Pitt sees her for a set number of hours on school days and every other day on weekends and holidays. Maddox, 15 at the time of the split, reportedly refused to see his father when an initial meeting was negotiated between Pitt and his children.
“He doesn’t really see himself as Brad’s son,” a source told US Weekly at the time. Another added more bluntly: “He never wants to see Brad again.”
As the divorce dragged on, any issue involving the children was a flashpoint.
At one point, her judge issued a “cell phone protocol” that said Pitt needed to know the children’s phone numbers so he could talk to them or text them without her intervening or supervising them. Angelina was warned of serious consequences if she put distance between him and the children.
There were also disputes over the credibility of experts and witnesses called during custody hearings. It is understood Jolie wanted the children to testify about alleged domestic violence. The verdict didn’t go her way. Judge Oudekirk said in her statement: “
“There was a lack of credibility in many important areas and the existing custody arrangement between the parties must be changed at Mr Pitt’s request in the best interests of the children.”
However, this was later overturned due to the judge having a business relationship with one of Pitt’s lawyers, which was found to cast doubt on his impartiality by the California Court of Appeals in July 2021. Pitt’s lawyers called the move “cunning.” Since then there have been no further requests for custody.
The legal disputes now concern the sale of Jolie’s share in the Miravel vineyard to the Stoli Group. Last week, Pitt’s lawyers received approval to file a lawsuit against Jolie over the sale. So the war continues.