As Brad Pitt’s six children reportedly cut him out of their lives, they also had no relationship with their paternal grandparents, including Pitt’s beloved mother Jane Pitt, who died Tuesday at age 84.
The Daily Mail reported that Jane Pitt had not seen her six grandchildren — Maddox, Zahara, Pax, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne — for the past nine years, going back to when their mother, Angelina Jolie, filed for divorce from Pitt in 2016.
Sources close to Pitt blame Jolie for the lack of contact between the children and Pitt’s parents, Jane and Bill Pitt.
“The most gut-wrenching part is that Angelina kept the kids away from his parents, from their own grandparents,” a source told the Daily Mail. “The question Brad has — that we all have — is Angelina where is your heart? Are you going to remain bitter for the rest of your life?
“It’s one thing if she wants no contact (with her former in-laws), but what about the kids?” the source asked.
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 05: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt pose with Bill Ptt and Jane Pitt at the after party for the premiere of “In the Land of Blood and Honey” at the The Standard Hotel Rooftop on December 5, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
Jane Pitt’s obituary in the News-Leader in Springfield, Missouri, tries to offer a more positive view about her relationship with the children of her movie star son. It said that the Tennessee-born former elementary school teacher and community volunteer doted on all 14 of her grandchildren. According to the obituary, Jane Pitt also loved to paint, with her love for art becoming “a cherished bond” between her and her grandchildren.
“Known affectionately as ‘Grammy,’ Jane found immense joy in celebrating each grandchild’s uniqueness through one-on-one traditions lovingly known as ‘Your Special Day,’” the obituary said. “These treasured moments remain among the fondest memories for all 14 of her grandchildren.”
Pitt, 66, was known to be close to his mother, who made occasional red-carpet appearances by her famous son’s side, the Daily Mail reported. Jane and Bill Pitt raised the future “F:1” star and his younger siblings in Springfield, Missouri. Jane Pitt also was said to be proud of her son’s acting career and supportive of him from the start, even before he got his big break in the 1991 blockbuster “Thelma & Louise.”
But as close as Pitt remained with his parents, he hasn’t been able to replicate that sort of parent-child bonding with his own children. According to reporting over the years, he became estranged from all six of his children in the aftermath of his bitter divorce from Jolie.
The family rift stems from an infamous September 2016 private plane ride from Europe when an allegedly drunk Pitt became angry and physical with Jolie, their oldest son Maddox and some of the other children. That altercation prompted Jolie to file for divorce and led to Pitt being investigated by the FBI and Child Protective Services. Pitt denied ever being abusive to his children, and no criminal charges were ever filed. But a years-long custody dispute followed, which ultimately resulted in Pitt losing shared custody of the children.
Pitt reportedly enjoyed supervised visitation with his children early on, but as the children grew up they appeared to distance themselves from him. Initially, it was reported that Maddox, now 24, had stopped speaking to Pitt. In 2023, the Daily Mail also revealed that Pax, as a 16-year-old, had slammed Pitt on his private Instagram, calling his adopted father “an awful human being” after the actor won an Academy Award for his performance in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” Pax, now 21, also called his father “a terrible and despicable person” who makes the youngest of his six children “tremble with fear.”
It was reported last summer that the “Fight Club” star also has “virtually no contact” with his oldest daughter, Zahara, 20, whom Jolie initially adopted from Ethiopia.
Then there are Jolie and Pitt’s three biological children. Last summer, Shiloh, 19, hired an attorney to file a legal petition to formally drop Pitt’s last name from her own so that she would henceforth be known as Shiloh Jolie, instead of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. Vivienne, 17, also has publicly used just the surname Jolie — sending Pitt a message that he “got loud and clear,” a source told the Daily Mail in an earlier report.
But there’s a “glimmer of hope” for Pitt in Vivienne’s twin, Knox, because the 17-year-old has decided to keep Jolie-Pitt as his surname, the Daily Mail also reported. Pitt has “accepted” that he and Jolie will always be “at odds,” but he still holds out hope that he will one day have a relationship with at least some of his children.
“Brad is a family man,” an insider told the Daily Mail. “When it comes to their children, he will always want to be an anchor in their lives.”
During his recent promotional efforts for the racing movie, “F1,” Pitt once again opened up about going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to help him with his recovery from the alcohol abuse that was reportedly at the center of his conflicts with Jolie and his children.
Unfortunately for his mother, it appears that she couldn’t have a role in the children’s lives before she died, according to the Daily Mail. Still, “Brad wants nothing more than to have resolution with his kids and to restore a relationship with them,” a source told the Daily Mail. If his children don’t meet him halfway, he at least hopes that his father won’t have to continue to “suffer” by not having any contact with them, the source said.
“He said Angelina should have been encouraging the kids to maintain a relationship with their grandparents all along,” the source said. “Hopefully this is a wake-up call. Life is too short and too precious.”