In the past month, there’s been a lot of interesting gossip around Angelina Jolie, her children and her ex-husband Brad Pitt. Zahara Jolie graduated from Spelman and Brad was not there, nor did he mark the occasion privately or publicly. Angelina’s team called him out publicly about it. Then we learned that Zahara and Maddox have both filed to change their names and formally drop “Pitt” from their legal names. Over the weekend, Page Six added something else: Knox has stopped using “Pitt” from his name as well, and his name on his high-school diploma is simply “Knox Jolie.” Brad skipped Knox’s graduation as well. Throughout all of these many stories about Brad being a deadbeat father who refuses to show up for his children, Brad’s team has repeatedly cried about how Angelina “alienated” the children from him. Angelina’s side has been clapping back hard. So, I went into this Daily Mail exclusive thinking that it was just going to be more of the same from Pity Party Pitt, but once again, even the normally pro-Pitt outlets are publishing Team Jolie’s pushback.
For Brad Pitt, the impending 18th birthdays next month of Vivienne and Knox, his twins with former wife Angelina Jolie and the youngest of their sprawling brood, will be a day of profound sorrow. Because the Oscar-winning actor believes the day will mark the ‘final exclamation point’ in what his friends call ‘the most successful campaign of parental alienation in history.’
Pitt, 62, who once described the six children he shared with 51-year-old Jolie as ‘my entire world,’ has effectively been shut out of their lives completely. He has no contact, has attended no graduations, has missed out on school plays and dance recitals and will spend Father’s Day next Sunday as he has for the past few years. Alone.
What’s more, the Daily Mail understands that, like their older siblings Maddox, Shiloh, Zahara and Pax, the twins will legally file to have Pitt’s name formerly removed from their surname ‘within days’ of their birthday. On Friday, it was reported that Knox had indeed dropped Pitt’s name from his high school diploma when he graduated from Fusion Academy in Los Angeles earlier this month.
A source close to Brad told the Daily Mail: ‘We’re at the finish line. Angelina has won. This has been a comprehensive and deliberate effort to fully alienate the children from their father and dropping the Pitt name from theirs is an exclamation point. She has completed the most effective campaign of parental alienation ever but at what cost?’
Now, for the first time, the Daily Mail can reveal that sources close to Pitt believe that part of Jolie’s deep-rooted animus towards her ex is because she attempted a reconciliation with him after that plane incident – and was rebuffed by him. Another source with knowledge of the situation denied this, saying that Jolie did not seek ‘reconciliation’ but instead: ‘Participated in years of family therapy with Pitt and the children, for everyone to try to heal after the events that led to her divorce.’
Pitt fought to try and get shared custody but dropped that legal effort in March 2024. He was given legal visitation rights to the twins, which will end when they turn 18. It is not known when Pitt last saw any of his children, but the estrangement is believed to be total. He has not been photographed with any of his children in more than six years. ‘Having visitation rights and having the children want to see him are two different things,’ the friend sighed.
A source with knowledge of Jolie’s situation said: ‘If he isn’t close to the kids, it’s because of the harm he has done. He wasn’t honest about his actions, and it affected the trust between them. It’s been very hard for the kids. No one knows, except them, how bad it has been.’
Those within Team Pitt point to some of the ‘troubles’ the children have experienced as proof that a lack of a father figure has ramifications, while those on Team Jolie shrug that off, saying the children are all remarkably well-adjusted and polite. One mother whose child attended the same dance class as Shiloh, 20, at the Millennium Dance Complex in Los Angeles, told the Daily Mail: ‘Considering how Hollywood messes people up, Angelina’s children are remarkably normal. Shiloh is extremely talented as a dancer. She wants to dance and do choreography professionally. You would never know she’s the daughter of two of the most famous people on the planet. She’s down-to-earth and shy.’ Shiloh has been described as ‘gender fluid’ because she went through a period of dressing in boys’ clothes and wanting to be called John, but the mother said: ‘She went through a period of experimentation as all kids do. She’s a great kid. Everyone loves her.’
For now, Pitt is said to be dreading Father’s Day. An acquaintance said: ‘Father’s Day is very tough for him because he spends it alone. There are no kids running up to him with sweet handwritten cards and homemade gifts and there is no storytelling over brunch. He still has his own father, which is great, but it’s not the same. He wanted to be honored on Father’s Day. He feels he has lost his children forever, that there is no turning back now. It has been a decade with little to no contact with his children. They don’t really know him, and he doesn’t really know them, which makes him terribly sad.’
The “Angelina attempted a reconciliation with him after that plane incident – and was rebuffed by him” story is an audacious lie. The opposite was true – Brad was absolutely furious that Angelina didn’t come crawling back to him, and that she was completely done with the marriage the moment he put his hands on her children. Brad has been the one furiously punishing Angelina financially and through these BS lawsuits because he was the jilted one and he couldn’t handle it.
As for the rest of it… lots of fascinating admissions in this piece. I also believe that Knox and Vivienne are going to change their names and drop “Pitt” on or around their 18th birthday. I also believe that it’s been many years since any of the kids have spoken to him. I also believe that Brad “wanted to be honored on Father’s Day” despite being a deadbeat and a horrible person. I also believe that Brad doesn’t actually care about those six kids, he just hates that his image has taken hit after hit because the kids so clearly despise him. Also: the kids absolutely seem well-adjusted and cool, and that’s because of Angelina.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.
