{"id":5248,"date":"2026-07-23T18:40:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5248"},"modified":"2026-07-23T18:40:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:40:39","slug":"brad-pitts-kids-dispute-his-claim-of-parental-alienation-by-angelina-jolie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5248","title":{"rendered":"Brad Pitt’s kids dispute his claim of ‘parental alienation’ by Angelina Jolie"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brad Pitt\u2019s children, particularly the four who have taken legal steps to drop his last name from their own, would apparently like it to be known that they were not gaslit by their mother Angelina Jolie into turning against him.<\/p>\n

Read more House again passes a resolution seeking to halt military action in Iran as the conflict escalates<\/a><\/p>\n

There was no \u201cparental alienation\u201d as Pitt as long claimed, a source close to Jolie told People.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people knew the whole truth, they would have more sympathy for the children and respect them,\u201d the source said.\u00a0\u201cThe fact they aren\u2019t speaking ill or sharing things publicly only shows their decency.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and 18-year-old twins, Knox and Vivienne, are not directly speaking out themselves about their father because they are \u201cdecent.\u201d But their mother, 51, clearly wants to present a positive spin on her side in this long, contentious family drama. That\u2019s why her representative is speaking to People, following news this week that Vivienne filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court, requesting that her legal name be changed from Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt to Vivienne Marcheline Jolie.<\/p>\n

Vivienne filed her petition shortly after she turned 18, and she has become the fourth of Pitt\u2019s children to separate herself from the Academy Award winner in such a public, legal way.<\/p>\n

That same source insisted to People that Jolie is no longer angry at her 62-year-old ex-husband. \u201cShe just wants everyone to heal,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

Pitt declined to respond to news of Vivienne\u2019s legal move, but sources close to him have previously claimed that Jolie worked to alienate his children from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad to see someone repeatedly publicize their successful alienation of their children from the other parent,\u201d a source close to Pitt recently told People.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

A Pitt source similarly told the Daily Mail: \u201cThere has been a campaign of alienation (by Jolie) which has been successful. The antagonism is huge. He has been alienated from the kids completely. It is devastating to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parental alienation is a dynamic that occurs when a child refuses to have a relationship with a parent due to manipulation by the other parent, such as by conveying of exaggerated or false information, as Psychology Today explains. The situation most often arises during a divorce or custody battle, but it can also happen in intact families.<\/p>\n

The perpetrator of parental alienation can employ a variety of tactics, including when one parent tells the child that the other parent hates the child or that the other parent is abusive, Psychology Today also said. The perpetrator also may blame the other parent for the collapse of the marriage, punish the child for wanting to pursue a relationship with that parent or move away so that maintaining a relationship becomes extremely difficult.<\/p>\n

Pitt didn\u2019t do himself any favors early on in the family drama. He reportedly forced Jolie to file for divorce in September 2016 by allegedly drinking too much and becoming violent with her and several of their children during a private plane ride back to the United States from the couple\u2019s Chateau Miraval winery and estate in France. A number of reports said that Maddox, then 15, was the main focus of Pitt\u2019s aggression on the flight.<\/p>\n

Read more Covered California rates to jump nearly 10% as thousands struggle to afford coverage<\/a><\/p>\n

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Child welfare officials investigated the incident and cleared Pitt of any wrongdoing. The \u201cF1\u201d star also denied ever being abusive, though he gave multiple interviews in subsequent years, acknowledging that he had to overcome problems with alcohol and learn to better control his anger.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been reported that Maddox immediately distanced himself from his father after that infamous plane flight. Maddox\u2019s connection with his mother has always run deeper, given that she adopted him on her own from an orphanage in Cambodia in 2002 when he was 7 months old. On her own, Jolie also adopted Pax and Zahara from Vietnam and Ethiopia, respectively. Pitt later joined in adopting the three older children, while he and Jolie then had three biological children, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne.<\/p>\n

The focus on Pitt\u2019s problems with his children ramped up in 2023 when it became known that Pax allegedly called him a \u201cworld-class (expletive)\u201d and an \u201cawful human being\u201d in a resurfaced 2020 social media post. In that post, Pax also accused his father of making his\u00a0younger siblings \u201ctremble in fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following year, Shiloh became the first of Pitt\u2019s children to legally drop his surname. A few months later, a source told People that Brad \u201chas virtually no contact with the adult kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this time, an insider also told People that Pitt still had limited contact Vivienne and Knox, though Vivienne didn\u2019t use the \u201cPitt\u201d surname in her 2024 Playbill credit for the Broadway musical \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d which her mother produced.<\/p>\n

As of now,\u00a0Zahara also is seeking to legally change her name to Zahara Marley Jolie, while Maddox is requesting to become Maddox Chivan Jolie. These two recently published notices, as legally required, which revealed their intentions to drop Pitt from their last names.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not known if Pax and Knox will follow their siblings in dropping their father\u2019s surname. A source told the Daily Mail that Pitt considers his relationship with Pax \u201cunfixable,\u201d while the actor is not planning any outreach to either of his adopted sons.<\/p>\n

\u201cPax and Maddox have made it abundantly clear how they feel and Brad has nothing to say about either of them,\u201d the Daily Mail source said.<\/p>\n

As for his other children, the Daily Mail source said Pitt \u201cholds out hope that the others will one day come around. Time heals wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in an interview with the Daily Mail, a source close to Jolie hit back at her ex-husband and said: \u201cBrad continues to play the victim. His fractured relationship with his children is a direct result of how he has treated them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more House again OKs resolution seeking to halt military action in Iran, but Senate rejects similar one<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘If people knew the whole truth, they would have more sympathy for the children,’ a source said in a new report about the actor’s estrangement from one of his six children. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nBrad Pitt’s kids dispute his claim of ‘parental alienation’ by Angelina Jolie - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5248\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brad Pitt’s kids dispute his claim of ‘parental alienation’ by Angelina Jolie - 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