First off, please enjoy the photo of “Brad Pitt” on Us Weekly’s cover this week. Who was the Photoshop Wizard on this one? Did someone get drunk and decide to morph Brad’s face with Leo DiCaprio’s? It’s amazing. Us Weekly’s cover story is all about how Brad Is Fine and he still sees his kids, even though Us Weekly continues to point out (in other coverage) that Brad’s two oldest sons, Maddox and Pax, refuse to spend time with him. But that isn’t mentioned in this cover story, because this is all about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood promotion and The Return of Brad Pitt.
Time makes all the difference — just ask Brad Pitt. The Oscar nominee was in a dark place after he went through a messy divorce from longtime love Angelina Jolie that included a nasty custody battle over their six children: Maddox, Pax, Shiloh, Zahara, Vivienne and Knox. Now, almost three years after the couple called it quits, Pitt, 55, is focused on being a good father to the children he shares with Jolie, 44.
A source confirmed to Us Weekly that he participates in normal activities with his kids. “They do simple things like cook or watch movies,” the insider revealed.
“He encourages them to pursue their hobbies,” the source continued. “They love to hang out and talk. Brad talks to them about whatever is on their minds — he’s a great listener.”
The Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood actor, who attends therapy, has also turned to art to help him heal. He even spends a good chunk of his free time sculpting in a studio.
“It’s very therapeutic for him; it’s his go-to outlet,” the insider shared. “He can get caught up in it and carried away to the point where he doesn’t want to stop.”
How low do we set the bar for fathers in general, and divorced fathers in particular? It feels like we’re definitely setting the bar too low if it’s notable that Brad “hangs out” with his kids and he “listens” to them. I guess it is notable considering he did *something* to Maddox which completely altered his relationships with Angelina and all of his kids, so… yeah. Family therapy works, I guess.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.
Yup. That’s a really low bar if the litmus test for a great father is he has conversations with his kids when he sees them.
But what about the other two who refuse to see you Brad?
I find it really sad that he is not even trying to mend his bonds with the oldest 2.
It’s beyond sad and judging by how close the siblings are I really doubt they’re cool with the way their father abandoned their older brothers. Brad Pitt is the absolute worst.
As someone who’s lived thru problems with parents, I might suggest that perhaps it’s not his choice.
For years I refused to speak to my mother due to her drug problems. When she got clean she tried for years to repair our relationship, I refused to speak to her until I was ready.
Point is, we dont know the whole story and it could be that hes trying and the boys are refusing, which is their right.
Here to agree with wow2
It may not be his choice
And as much as people enjoy saying he’s the worst- I am firmly against parental alienation.
It appears he’s doing the work of going to therapy. So he- and they- should have a relationship – or at least a chance to have- a relationship. He with his kids and them with their dad.
It’s possible the older kids are seeing things along binary lines: Dad is an a-hole Mom is a saint. And things may not be that clear cut. But bc of their age they can’t be forced to see him. The younger kids still get time with him and therefore may have a better chance at a good relationship with him.
It’s a terrible situation when kids are kept from a parent bc one parent wants to wield power or influence. I hope Angie is encouraging a healthy relationship with him and that he keeps putting the work and time in.
Mad and Pax are both old enough that they get to tell the judge whether or not they want to see their father. After a certain age, it’s the child’s choice.
Yeah, the bar is being set way too low here. Like, news at seven, a man spends time with his children. Here’s your medal, Brad.
Imagine if the same story were being spun about a woman. People would be completely baffled.
But it is spun about a woman. Angie takes her kids clothes shopping. Angie takes cookies to karate class. My God what a mother. How does she do it?
She gets wondermom publicity now because she goes out with her kids and does the stuff her mom did with her when she was a kid in LA, like go shopping. It was all “she’s a succubus man stealer” before until she’d pop up with a NYT opinion piece or at a refugee camp. One could argue that she promoted her humanitarian pursuits, which definitely happened, but she was asked to be involved to promote knowledge of the horrors of war. She doesn’t have a bunch of PR people promoting how perfect she is, like Ivanka Trump. Pitt does.
“She gets wondermom publicity.” Yes, that’s what I said. All I said.
no, “angie takes her kids clothes shopping or to karate class” is not a tale being spun, she is simply being photographed running these errands and living her life with her children.
“brad cooks with his kids and is a great listener” IS a tale being spun because the guy hasn’t been photographed with his kids in years now and we know the 2 older ones won’t be around him and he had supervised visitation forever. so he’s telling stories to the media trying to convince everyone he’s such a great dad while angie is just papped with her kids when they’re doing normal stuff. there’s a difference.
Huh? Angelina actually spends real time with them and doesn’t hide in a compound for the two days she has them. Oh wait she has full custody. LoL
She takes them to do things like karate, karate tournaments, college tours, birthday parties all of which deadbeat is absent from.
She doesnt have the every two week cover story about how she’s listens to her kids… right after skipping one of their mile stone birthdays. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
There’s so much presumption here. It is a goofy story. He’s no press wiz that’s for sure. Puts his foot in it all the time. BUT, how is calling him a deadbeat and a loser going to help his family/children? I wish both he and Angelina the best in raising these children. We all have more to learn about parenting. My youngest is 21 and is still at home and I am still surprised at how I need to improve every day as a parent. He still follows my lead and therefore I am still modeling for him and my 25 year old. I for one support Brad’s growth and Angelina’s too. And if someone here says she is a perfect parent I will hurl across my sick bed (nasty cold)
When I see the media manipulation invested in so many men to hide their flaws and justify their cruelty in “first world” places, it makes me feel more depressed for my daughter and the young women of the world. I’m 50, and I thought it was getting better. The fight is hard, and I am tired.
I have realised that the media is women’s true enemy and we need to take those sexist male news owners down first.
I agree.
I agree. It’s really disheartening ☹️
This. All day, Christina.
I knew when they first went bust over the plane incident w/the kids and Brad’s drinking/drugging etc., that if Brad didnt step up and own his addictions and problematic behavior that one day in the not so distant future, they’d be writing pieces like this US Weakly rag, and characterizing what happened as your run of the mill marital bust up. I knew the misogynist tabloids would come up with some really War of the Roses type split that was only about their relationship going bust and not Brad’s addictions and violent behavior.
It’s why I loathe Brad. The subterfuge and not acknowledging his problems, which just invites dummies to attack AJ again. He doesn’t care.
I still can not fathom how this man can admit in interviews that he was abusing alcohol and pot throughout their entire relationship, that he was an absentee father who hid in work, and that the entire collapse of his family was his fault — and everyone on Team Brad shrugs like it was no big deal.
He admitted to being drunk and high around his kids for years.
He got so drunk that he did something that hurt his son, and his wife had to cut off all contact to protect their kids.
He drank to the point of losing control. Around his kids. Being regularly wasted around small children is not a small thing.
If it were my neighbor and not a celebrity, everyone would agree that she escaped a marriage to a volatile, emotionally and likely physically abusive drunk. We’d applaud her and her kids as abuse survivors, because it’s damn hard to leave and not go back — especially when the abuser turns on the charm and keeps saying, “I’ve changed.”
There is a straight line between bullshit spin, like these leaks from Brad’s team, and people staying in abusive relationships, or deciding to give abusive exes or parents another chance. He’s trying to rehab his image by normalizing abuse, as if what he did was no big deal.
It makes my blood boil.
Amen, this article is all about *his* healing and how his kids are a component of his therapy. Gross. Jen Garner and Brad are two crazy extremes of parenthood presented in the media. Garner is *only* apparently alive to take care of her children whereas Brad is alive to live his best single life ever with a light patting on the head of his children once in a while!
But at least his PR and/or the tabs have decided running stories about Brad’s new loves backfired on him. Now they are going for the new holistic Brad who is trying to get along with his ex-wife and talking to his children on the phone! Brad is still living in the 90’s with Tom Cruise where divorced celebrity men were not held to any parenting standards.
Many people who sided with Pitt when the divorce news first broke are beginning to question why Brad hasnt been seen with his kids and why all six had to travel with Angie to New Mexico to shoot her movie it means he lost custody and spends little or no time at all with his kids.
Brad needs to stop with the PR cos even the blind can see he lost custody and there is no spinning it on Angie
Good point. I think you’re probably right. She has full custody and he has some visitation. But didn’t he go to NM with them? I read he was seen coming off the plane.
link to that? it would be a pretty big deal if he were indeed seen in the company of his kids AND especially angie. i doubt it happened, the older 2 want nothing to do with them, esp after what happened, why would Maddox ever get on a plane with him again??
If either one of these two have “full custody” of these children, I am a monkey’s uncle. It just does not happen.
Ground control, you really thought deadbeat would get 50 because that’s how California usually does it but obviously something is seriously wrong with him. It is clear as day that he does not have 50%.
It is odd that his team leaks these little stories but he is never seen with them in public. He likely still has supervised visitation and that is not a good look. Also why does he always look like such a mess. That long sleeve shirt under a T-shirt thing looks awful. It’s not 1994 brad
Exactly he needs to stop with all this leaks it doesn’t make him look good at all on the contrary it has got people asking questions
But that’s the reason of this cover. He’s trying to hide the fact he lost custody and doesn’t have a meaningful role in those kids lives. He also skipped Shiloh’s birthday to party with friends in Venice. Of course you don’t read about that in the Us article that his PR team approved.
“He loves hanging out with his kids”? Of course, they all go out and play on all the new playground equipment he purchased for 7 and 8 year old. And they just hang out and talk it out. Never mind these are teens and pre-teens who (I know I did) don’t want to stay cooped up in a house. They probably want to get out and about. But don’t cha know, Pitt isn’t about to be seen with monitors hanging over him. I’ve said it before, he doth protests too much and puts too much out there about “hanging out” with his kids. Makes me believe he doesn’t hang with them at all. And as for not even trying to repair the relationship with the two older children? That’s just sad. Proves my point that he’s not the bigger man. I, for one, wish he just shut up, Live his life with his kids and shut up!
50% of the custody when the final divorce arrives, wants to remain private with his children before the final divorce
Sure Jan.
His only a great father in tabloids land.
God I was a fan of this Man 😟
I only became a fan when he got with Angelina, but then I REALLY liked him and the two of them together. I thought they were sizzling hot. Finding out what kind of person he really is has been an eye opener.
I really wonder what happened to their relationship; they were convincing the public for years it was all a grand love story with no flaws. I think he didn’t know what he wanted after his first marriage broke down and Angelina was beautiful and available so he just started a family without thinking too much about it. I mean, they’d barely had any time to know each other when they started having more children together. I think they had serious issues from the start. That Dr Drew guy is an opportunistic talking head but he rightly predicted how epic their split would be.
This is a PR machine at it’s best. I think Angie took one once again for him and made a decision to not take this to court. I do believe they came to an agreement and she was asked not to disclose certain things as a trade off. The public will never know what happened nor will they know what the custody agreement is.
If he had any leeway this would have been leaked by someone. Wasser was put to rest so TMZ won’t get any leaks anymore. That was the smartest move Angie made in the three year battle. She should have moved forward the first year.
These kids love their dad and so did Angie so I give him that much. He lost his family and it was a lot more than that plane incident. According to some Angie was wanting out and that was the sounding alarm.
He has an image to uphold as always. U know the facade that he says he was tired of. He will never tire of his image. That is how he makes his living and he has an enormous ego.
As Angie stated all of them are better off now. She sacrificed her image and credibility trying to protect her kids.
I despise him and his team. From day one he has let people tear her apart and allowed people to blame her for everything wrong that HE does.
Your comment is the truth!!!!
Yep 💯 all the above.
That man lost me as a fan when his PR was ripping his wife and son Apart in the media ugh
She has a pretty rocking career happening at the moment. I don’t think she sacrificed her credibility. Those that despise her will no matter what, and those that are fans seem to have a better grasp on the situation than national magazines do, so they will stay fans. One day the truth will out.
This is a really stupid story and makes him look like a douche, but there is one thing as a paralegal in this family law court that I cannot let by and that is that She does not have full custody. You are right that we will not see the custody agreement, but the pleading I did read, and read again this morning, was the judge ordering significant time to Pitt, admonishing Angelina (who I agree was doing what any good mother would do and that’s being with her kids all the time) for hindering contact and at no time in this pleading was the judge leaning toward sole custody to either parent (unless she did not follow the order – but even then the parent time would only shift and not become sole custody). With this type of parenting time, THERE IS 99.98% of the time JOINT legal custody. I am sorry. But, I just can’t stand speculation. I like facts. and facts are that people disparaging either parent on the internet HURTS THESE CHILDREN. It’s not a game. These are real people and real children. And don’t say “this is a gossip site” it doesn’t change that and this is MY opinion
“With this type of parenting time, THERE IS 99.98% of the time JOINT legal custody”
I don’t think legal custody was ever in the question. I think most people here are talking about physical custody and I am pretty sure he doesn’t have 50-50
Ground control, this brangelina custody case is obviously not your normal case. In a normal non abusive matter parents would split 50/50 in California. Something is obviously wrong with brad that he didn’t get that and we know he didn’t because his team screamed and yelled about how the arrangement was not permanent – funny because Angelina never gave details so why scream and yell about something people wouldn’t know about. Maybe if he didn’t do that we could say MAYBE he has 50 but then you see all the other evidence that proves he doesn’t have anywhere close to 50%. Sad. Sad. sad.
@crogirl
But it’s rarely ACTUALLY 50/50 in normal peoples’ lives. Because of jobs, kids schedules, locations, etc. When parents are splitting physical custody it’s very difficult to do actual 50/50. It’s usually some other combination in the ballpark of 60/40 or something like that. Unless you’re literally doing 1 week on and 1 week off or whatever, it’s pretty difficult to evenly split it. Most people have to make it work with one parent getting more time than the other. Holidays, illness, travel – it all throws wrenches in the situation when you’re trying to do equal physical custody.
@Erinn
I get what you are saying. But from what I’ve read lots of people get exactly that, one week each. They live close to each other, the kids are home schooled and during summer they could each take them for a month or something.
I don’t think that’s what he got, I might be wrong but we will never know for sure unless we see the papers.
Perhaps he doesn’t shop his kids for publicity, maybe that is why he is not photographed with them, just a thought.
What you and some people don’t understand is if these people go out; paps and cameras, twitter, or some form of media will spot them or post up. Shopping to get pap walks with teenagers and pre teens is so stupid to say. Hell they even follow the kids around when they are alone with the bodyguards so I won’t say she does photo ops with these kids. They are people who have to live just like you and me. If she goes to the grocery store or target they take photos. The first thing people say is doesn’t she have enough money to let people do that for her. Well dammit if she wants to do it just to get out of the house then so be it.
Brad use to do it with her before they split. The problem is he goes out with his friends, goes to business meeting, on trips with friends and hell even other folk kids but you DO NOT SEE HIM OUT WITH HIS. That is not being private! There is something wrong here and his fans refuse to admit it.
Why do some of the public buy into his PR Crap? Why has he Not been seen with all his children or a least one?
Exactly. It’s been almost 3 years. How do you effectively parent teenagers locked up in a house for 3 years. Brad Pitt must really think the public are idiots.
That’s what I’m saying!
Brad isolating his kids in his home is NOT healthy. Is there a reason why he can’t take his kids to their activities, to a baseball game, out for lunch?
No one cares what kind of a father he is. At the same time, no one believes he abused anyone.
Sounds like a totally normal way to talk about being a father.
“He’s a great listener. They talk all the time. They have a lot in common. They all love soup.”
😂😂😂
They all love soup. BAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Nice.
They all love snap peas. They could all talk or not talk for hours and still find things to not talk about.
These PR attempts are not helping, and more likely hurting. Just shut up and actually BE a good father.
It’s disturbing to me that he continues to use his kids to promote his career. They never shied away from that when together, but after everything that happened, you’d think he’d stop now.
As Lainey gossip once said he owes the tabloids exclusives. even if it’s lies. I’m sure Us weekly told his team they would run a cover about how he skipped his 13 year old daughters milestone birthday so he gave them this crap.
E online did the same. They ran a story about how angie and kids were spending their time in New Mexico all based on photographic evidence and a few days later deadbeat daddy gave them an exclusive all about how he spends time with Angelinas kids.
He is as bad as janelle Evans “giving up” on her oldest children but still kind of trying to fight for her youngest that can’t talk about the abuse they witness or endure.
pitt has excellent relationships with all the children, is a good father, he is innocent, the accusations against him were false and this is official, jolie is guilty of parental alienation, is a horrible woman, in the end pitt will have 50/50 of custody, people prefer pitt, he won
lol
snort
This
HAHAHAHAHA in what world??? Wow!
Between US & E online spin on the situation, it makes me come to the conclusion that whatever happened was pretty darn serious. E online even mentioned wherever Jolie’s base is the kids will be with her and they will visit him in LA and he will go to NM for a few days. I guess if his relationship is improving with some of the kids than that’s progress in itself so hopefully things keep improving for the kids sake.
I don’t buy this for a NY minute. Pitt is an absent Father to those kids.
He must be paying out big $$ for this PR. I call BS.
Brad Pitt had better keep himself busy as a producer.
I think his acting career is seriously damaged after all that bad press he has had in the last several years.
Man, I cant wait for the kids to come out with their “Mommy/Daddy Dearest” books.
You know, some book publisher is ready to give the go ahead.
Pitt, not another dime of my money ever.
Why do we care what kind of a father he is? These celebrities should just leave their kids out of everything: pap walks, pr releases, photoshoots for interviews, whatever. Whatever the nature of their relationship, just let it come out naturally, not so deliberately and faux like this story.
Angie was the saint who rescued & adopted Maddox & Pax before Brad came into the scene. Their primary loyalty will always be to her & to each other.
I’d heard that Angie was no longer all-in on the marriage for a while, (maybe because of Brad’s drinking?) before whatever precipitating event occurred on the plane. Idk. After calling her attorney or agent, she & the kids went straight to a gated, secure, furnished mansion. Maybe agents & law firms in LA rent fully furnished mansions & keep them available for “emergencies?” Either that or Angie had intended to depart at the first good opportunity. Nobody finds & rents a house in just a few hours without some advance planning.
I liked them as a couple & was sorry for the family troubles as it affects the children but I can’t throw a lot of blame around because I don’t know what happened.
As far as Shi’s birthday, I’ve never heard why Brad wasn’t there. I didn’t invite my ex to all of our daughter’s parties, especially once she hit the ‘tweens. It depended on the nature of the activity or entertainment. Sometimes his business travel schedule prevented his presence.
There’s a lot of shade being thrown around here when none of us really know the whole scoop. As far as custody in CA, I do know how it works as
I’ve done it. Unless both parent have non-traveling work & live near each other, 1 will have sole (100%) physical custody subject to the visitation rights of the non-custodial parent. Both will have joint legal custody (50/50) and there is a difference between physical & legal.
Actually the housing situation was an emergency, her assistant for the few days after the plane incident was seeking property & booked them in an luxury Airbnb, then when that time was up, she rented another property. Saying she was looking for an out & had everything ready is BS written by a tabloid.
Lol 😂 Is this the new theory the Brad fans are cooking up in just Jared. All the spin those ppl do for this man is scary
He was photograph with his children many times from 2006-2016. He has not been seen with any of his children since 2016.
Shhh were supposed to forget about that and that time when he took personal photos of Angelina and her kids for W MAGAZINE. Shhhhhhh
He also never took Chris Cornell’s kids out to a theme park. Shhhh he’s private.
I just want to know once and for all wtf happened on that plane?