Everything We Know About Brad Pitt’s Relationship With Maddox Jolie-Pitt

Brad Pitt and his son, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, have had an infamously strained relationship for years. The tension between father and son hasn’t lessened one bit since the incident on an airplane that caused Angelina Jolie to file for divorce. There have been a lot of rumors about where things stand between Maddox and Brad now, so Gossip Cop did some digging to get to the bottom of them.

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What Happened Between Brad Pitt And Maddox?

The barest amount of details have been released concerning just what happened between Brad Pitt and Maddox on the plane that day. There have been conflicting reports from both Brad and Angelina Jolie’s camps, which complicates matters. What is known for certain is that the family was flying from their home in Nice, France to their LA abode when the incident took place.

According to TMZ, the incident began after Brad and Jolie got into an argument Maddox reportedly intervened and verbally defended his mother. Brad, in TMZ’s words, “lunged” at the then-teenaged Maddox, with Jolie jumping between the two to separate them. There has been some debate over whether Brad was drunk at the time, since both Jolie and Brad’s parties alleged different things. Jolie’s camp claimed Pitt began drinking after the altercation while Brad’s people said he was inebriated through the encounter.

What both parties agree happened next is that there was physical contact of some sort between father and son. As a result, the LA County Department of Child and Family Services began an investigation, which involved working with the FBI since the dispute happened mid-flight. As the investigation was still ongoing, a source close to Brad Pitt spoke with People, telling the outlet, “He takes the matter very seriously and says he did not commit any abuse of his children. It’s unfortunate that people involved are continuing to present him in the worst possible light.”

The investigation eventually came to a quiet close and it was determined that no charges would be filed. The divorce proceeded, with the former couple being essentially divorced now and working out financial and custody issues in court. Despite affairs essentially being settled between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the Ad Astra actor’s relationship with his oldest son is still not what anyone would call cordial.

The Rumors Aren’t Always Kind 

There have been innumerable reports about just how things are going between Maddox and his famous father, which often heavily feature Angelina Jolie. It’s safe to say that these rumors are definitely not kind in nature. Gossip Cop debunked each of the following rumors, but their narrative closely follows what public perception of the relationship has been.

Almost a year after the incident on the jet, HollywoodLife reported that Brad Pitt was “upset” with Angelina Jolie because she didn’t invite him to Maddox’s birthday party. The outlet claimed Brad was devastated he’d have to “miss out on this first big milestone event since the divorce.” Of course, the actor had also missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, Father’s Day, and the birthdays of several of his other children before Maddox’s birthday, but that fact was studiously ignored by the outlet.

Instead, the often debunked site chose to quote an almost certainly fake source who claimed, “[Pitt] is doing his best to work around Angelina’s wishes for the children, but this is one instance where Brad is really hurt.” The source added, “Despite his pleading, Angie simply will not set aside her differences.”

This was simply another hit piece meant to make Jolie look like a villain who was willfully keeping her children away from their father. This narrative pops up again and again, since the tabloids can’t seem to believe that a teenage boy would have a complicated relationship with his father without somehow being influenced by his mother.

Then came a report claiming that Maddox and his younger brother, Pax, who also reportedly has a strained relationship with Brad Pitt, sent their dad happy birthday messages via Instagram. Of course, neither boy had an Instagram account, but the truth has never stopped outlets like the Daily Mail and the Sun, who ran stories about the birthday wishes. The Instagram accounts in question were in fact fan accounts that have since been deleted. Gossip Cop received confirmation that the accounts didn’t belong to either Maddox or Pax, who did not use social media. Despite the tabloid media’s desperate wish for reconciliation between father and sons, Maddox and Pax are clearly fine with moving at their own pace when it comes to that, not the media’s.

The National Enquirer and its sister site Radar Online teamed up to report on a particularly vicious rumor in the spring of 2018. The often debunked outlets claimed Maddox made a “defiant demand” to live with his father, leaving Jolie “reeling.” The teen, who was born in Cambodia before being adopted by Jolie, was allegedly outraged by his mother praying at the grave of Pol Pot, who was responsible for the Cambodian genocide.

Of course, there’s literally zero evidence that Jolie, who directed the film First They Killed My Father which followed a Cambodian girl living under the brutal regime, prayed at the grave. Regardless, the publications pressed on, quoting a source who insisted Maddox “immediately called his estranged dad [and] begged to go live with him.” Brad Pitt supposedly tried to “soothe” his son by telling him, “Angie is interested in the history of the country where she found Maddox.” Again, Jolie is cast as a villain and Brad is the long suffering dad just trying to do the right thing. And poor Maddox is merely a pawn trapped in his mother’s cruel plot to make Brad suffer needlessly.

How Are Pitt And Maddox Getting Along Now? 

The relationship between Maddox and Brad Pitt is still largely nonexistent, which we can say almost for certain since that assessment comes straight from Maddox himself. In September of last year, a paparazzo caught up with Maddox in Seoul, South Korea where he was studying at Yonsei University. The college student was asked if his dad would be visiting him while he was in school and Maddox honestly answered, “I don’t know about that, what’s happening.”

The reporter followed that question up by asking if Maddox’s relationship with Brad Pitt was over for good. The oldest of the Jolie-Pitt family had another forthright answer, “Whatever happens, happens.” That doesn’t exactly sound like a son looking to reconcile with his father, but at least he didn’t dismiss the idea that a reunion would happen.

Brad Pitt has made a lot of changes in his life since his divorce from Angelina Jolie, including giving up alcohol, which at least had something to do with the altercation on the plane. As long as Brad continues to try to make inroads with his son, there’s always a chance that the two will reconnect. For the time being, however, Maddox seems content to go his own way.