Two weekends ago, Zahara Jolie graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta. Angelina Jolie was there, as were several of Zahara’s siblings. Zahara’s miserable father did not go, did not ask for an invitation, and did not mark Zahara’s milestone publicly or privately. It was actually a rare moment when Angelina’s team called out Brad publicly – sources close to Angelina went to TMZ (one of Brad’s favorite outlets) to basically call him a deadbeat and a loser (I’m paraphrasing). Well, “sources close to Brad” have been raging out ever since. There have been multiple pro-Pitt temper tantrums placed in the Daily Mail and Page Six since Zahara’s graduation.

First, Page Six had a dumb story about Brad’s latest “legal victory” against Angelina Jolie. That questionable victory? His lawyers will now get to depose Stoli’s general counsel, all over Angelina’s legal sale of Nouvel to a Stoli subsidiary. This case continues to expose Brad’s stupidity. Meanwhile, the Mail got yet another exclusive about Brad continuing to blame Angelina for their adult children’s refusal to have relationships with him.

As Zahara Jolie reaches what should be one of the happiest milestones of her life, tensions between her famous parents Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt reportedly continue to simmer behind closed doors. Shortly after the 21-year-old walked across the stage at her Spelman College graduation, reports began to surface that her dad never called to congratulate her.

‘Nothing prevented him from showing up for her. Or ever visiting her. The day was about all she accomplished. Not whether he was willing to attend,’ TMZ reported on May 18, citing ‘a source close to Angelina.’

In response to the backlash, a source told the Daily Mail that the ongoing public criticism surrounding Pitt’s relationship with his children has become increasingly frustrating to the actor.

‘When you’ve made clear that you’re pushing him away from the children, a reasonable person cannot then complain that he’s not close to the children,’ the source said. Multiple sources have spoken to the Daily Mail exclusively in defense of Pitt, insisting that he is not the absent father he has been portrayed as, and he wants a relationship with his six kids: Zahara, Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Shiloh, 20, and 17-year-old fraternal twins Knox and Vivienne. The first source claimed that not only has Pitt made ‘efforts’ over the years to salvage his relationship with his children, but so has his extended family.

‘His family did try to do things and there were, at some points, communication,’ that source said, before admitting ‘it’s been a while’ since that has happened. ‘I know that there have been attempts with the cousins. [Growing up], they did have a good relationship, so that’s been cut off also. Nothing’s really changed.’

The second source added that Pitt’s family has seemingly tried to follow his lead, and have respected the boundaries that have been set. ‘Those closest to him, including his friends and family, are not judging him through any of this because they know he is genuinely trying his best under incredibly difficult circumstances,’ the second insider said.

The family divide was again brought to the forefront when Pitt’s mother, Jane Etta Pitt, died last year at the age of 84. Sources revealed at the time that Jane had been heartbreakingly cut off from Pitt’s kids for about nine years, and they did not get a chance to speak before her death.

‘The most gut-wrenching part is that Angelina kept the kids away from his parents, from their own grandparents,’ one insider alleged to the Daily Mail last August. ‘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, but what about the kids?’

Sources close to Jolie have hit back in the past, with one claiming ‘Brad continues to play the victim. His fractured relationship with his children is a direct result of how he has treated them.’

The second source added that ‘Brad has come to understand that there is little more he can do beyond continuing to be present and available if his children ever decide they want him back in their lives.’ Meanwhile, a third insider has suggested that Jolie is able to control the narrative because she shares an extremely close bond with her kids, who are her ‘best friends.’

‘They are her entire world and she has convinced them Brad isn’t a good person,’ the third source claimed. ‘They’re now old enough to make their own decisions, but when you’ve been taught one thing for so long, it’s hard to suddenly unlearn things.’

‘Brad has been hoping for some kind of breakthrough with his kids, but right now it feels impossible,’ the second source told us. ‘The situation feels so surreal to him that it almost seems like it should be a bad joke rather than his reality.’

[From The Daily Mail]

While there’s been little mainstream reporting about this, I remember hearing that Angelina encouraged her kids to maintain relations with the hyper-conservative Pitt family and they did for a time, but the situation became way too toxic. Besides, this situation has been ongoing for a decade – four of the kids are adults (and the twins will be 18 in July), and they’re free to make decisions about who they spend time with. Zahara, Maddox, Pax and Shiloh have free will, and they want no part of anything to do with Brad. Those “Pitt sources” always fail to acknowledge something else: that the kids fully saw what Brad did to Angelina, and how he’s still abusing her and smearing her, and they’re ALL very protective of their mom. She was the one who got them out of that situation, she was the one who prioritized their well-being, she was the one fighting for their rights as minors.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.