They may have ended their marriage almost eight years ago, but they’re still not divorced yet - and there is still new information emerging from the sad and messy end to their relationship. As well as their ongoing legal wrangles over their assets including Chateau Miraval, their South of France vineyard, it has just this week been revealed that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had reached total loggerheads when it comes to parenting their six children.
A source told US magazine People that Pitt, 60, and Jolie, 49, had completely different parenting approaches during their marriage, which caused severe disagreements that contributed to their ultimate divorce. Said the source, ‘During their marriage, they had very different parenting styles. Brad grew up with structure and wanted more rules for the kids.’
They added, ‘Angie had a different upbringing and wanted the kids to be more independent and responsible for their own schedules from a young age. Brad and Angie clashed over this. However, they did always have the same vision for their kids' future. They wanted the kids to thrive by experiencing the world first-hand and not only learn from traditional schooling.’
It is interesting timing for this particular revelation, considering there have been several recent reports about the couple’s children distancing themselves from Pitt. Out of all six children, Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, and Shiloh, 18 are all said to have dropped ‘Pitt’ from their double barrelled names, now going only by Jolie - and have little to no contact with their father. Meanwhile the twins, Knox and Vivienne, 16, are thought to still have some contact with Pitt, although Vivienne was recently reported to have also dropped his surname, with her name appearing on the programme for Broadway show The Outsiders, on which she’s worked alongside her mother, reading only as ‘Vivienne Jolie’.
Pitt’s strained relations with his children came to light at the end of last year when an Instagram thought to have been shared by Pax detailed how he had caused his children trauma during the breakdown of his relationship with Jolie. Pax claimed that the Hollywood star made his four youngest children ‘tremble in fear’ and ‘made the lives of those closest to Pax a constant hell’, according to a screengrab revealed in November.
Meanwhile, a source has told Grazia how close Jolie is with all of her children, with their loyalty meaning ‘everything to her’ after what has been a devastating time since she filed for divorce from Pitt. It has since emerged that she ended their marriage amidst claims of abuse, both of her and the children, the details of which have been made public in court documents (although Pitt denies these claims completely).
As the couple’s almost eight-year divorce case painstakingly inches to a close, the final legal sticking point between the couple: the battle over Jolie’s decision to sell her part of the French vineyard Chateau Miraval to a Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler without telling Pitt, is still ongoing. The case - which is separate to the divorce - is the reason that explosive new documents emerged earlier this year which suggested that Pitt had been physically and emotionally abusive to Jolie long before she filed for divorce after a now infamous flight from France to Los Angeles during which Pitt is said to have turned on Jolie and one of their children (although he denies this and an FBI investigation into the matter was subsequently dropped).
In papers filed in May, Jolie’s attorneys detailed, 'Pitt's history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family's plane trip from France to Los Angeles,’ although they add that ‘this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well.’
The court papers claim that Jolie has evidence of 'Pitt's history of physical abuse of the family and abuse of Jolie' and claims the children continue to experience 'significant and ongoing post-traumatic stress'.
Now, it appears that Pitt and Jolie’s children are very much trying to start afresh, with Maddox and Pax both going out and finding roles within the film industry which made their parents so famous (Jolie herself has returned to the movie business after a post-divorce break ‘to heal’, filming a highly anticipated Maria Callas biopic last year). Meanwhile, daughter Zahara is attending college in Atlanta and daughter Shiloh is pursuing her interest in dance, with a video of one recent performance going viral after it was shared on social media. Jolie has been dividing her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she spends as much time with her children as she possibly can. ‘The family is beginning to feel like they can finally move on after a difficult time,’ says Grazia’s source.
Pitt is also moving on, with those close to him suggesting he is ready to settle down with long-term girlfriend Ines de Ramon, 35. With the future looking less filled with stressful legal battles, perhaps Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie can finally feel free of the failed relationship which has haunted them for almost a decade.