Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce is now one of the longest running in Hollywood history: since they first announced their split in 2016 the former golden couple have been embroiled in extensive legal battles which are still not close to being resolved. While Brad and Angelina have been going back and forth over their South of France vineyard, Chateau Miraval, the greatest hold up to their decree nisi is said to have been the resolution of their custody agreement, with neither party happy to compromise.

This week, there have been signs that a custody agreement simply may never be agreed, after news surfaced that Brad and Angelina’s adopted son Pax,19, had shared a scathing account of how he felt about his father on his private Instagram story on Father’s Day in 2020. In the leaked screenshot, Pax wrote over a photograph of Brad accepting an Oscar for his performance in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. ‘Happy Father’s Day to this world-class a***hole”!’ the post read. ‘You time and time and again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person.’ The teenager then allegedly claimed the Hollywood star made his four youngest children ‘tremble in fear’, and ‘made the lives of those closest to [Pax] a constant hell’.

This report came days after it was revealed that Zahara, Brad’s 18-year-old adopted daughter, had dropped the ‘Pitt’ from her double-barrelled surname, Jolie-Pitt, leaving her simply Zahara Jolie. The confirmation came in the form of a video of Zahara, who was being inducted into a sorority at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. In it, she says, ‘My name is Zahara Marley Jolie. And [I] landed all the way from the Golden State in the city full of angels: Los Angeles, California.’

Zahara follows her oldest brother Maddox, 22, who it’s thought has also dropped ‘Pitt’ from his name. It is with Maddox that Brad is said to have had the most serious fall out, after it was suggested that the eldest of their children had been assaulted by Brad during an incident on a private jet in 2016. In 2022, a court filing about that incident was made public. In the document, Angelina’s legal team alleged that Brad had drunkenly attacked her, grabbing her head and shaking her several times. The filing stated, ‘Pitt lunged at his own child and Jolie grabbed him from behind to stop him. Before it was over, Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face. A month later, the FBI investigated the incident, but no charges were filed, and Brad has never commented.

There is some suggestion that the custody battle has been so drawn out for a reason. The couple was tentatively granted 50/50 custody in 2021 by Judge John Ouderkirk, though he was disqualified in 2022 for having a conflict of interest (after a motion was filed by Angelina). His removal voided the previous decision and put them back at square one. Some sources believe the custody fight could continue until the youngest children all reach 18 (the twins Knox and Vivienne are currently 14) because neither wants to surrender to the other’s demands.

Hollywood divorce attorney Kelly Chang Rickert has told Grazia it wouldn’t be the first time she had seen this happen. ‘Even if the Judge issues a ruling, the other side can challenge it by modifying it, or appealing a final decision.’ She adds, ‘In a case where parties aren’t high profile, there would be a trial and the case would have some sort of a conclusion. I think Brad and Angie are avoidant of trials due to the publicity.’

Angelina has previously stated that things were so bad with Brad that she had felt frightened for her children, telling the Guardian that she feared for her ‘whole family’ after the incident on the plane. And while she has recently got back to work, seen filming scenes for the Maria Callas biopic in Paris in September, sources have revealed that she has found the split – and the traumatic developments surrounding it – devastating. ‘Brad has managed to hold onto his Nice Guy image for so many years, despite the headlines which have emerged since his split from Angelina,’ says one source. ‘Could his children’s opinion of him going public have a more significant effect on his reputation? It’s very possible.’

Brad has maintained he seriously regrets the incident on the plane in 2016. One of Brad’s friends anonymously told Vanity Fair earlier this year that ‘he will always regret [it], and right away took steps to address this and try to make amends’ (following the incident, Brad became sober). This week, another friend stressed that Brad wasn’t going to be drawn by the reports about Pax and Zahara, with The Sun reporting one source had told them that the 59-year-old star’s inner circle considered the allegations to be a ‘depressing’ smear on his character.

The drawn out, messy divorce is affecting both Brad and Angelina’s reputations professionally and privately in various ways, a source tells Grazia – and yet Brad’s Plan B production company has been thriving, while Angelina hasn’t worked for years until she set foot on the Maria set. The company, which Brad set up with Jennifer Aniston during their marriage (and then bought her out of after their split), along with business partner Brad Grey, is responsible for films such as Twelve Years A Slave and The Big Short, and has big upcoming projects such as the Beetlejuice sequel and the forthcoming David Fincher film The Killer. Angelina, says a Hollywood source, has felt – particularly as her divorce from Brad has turned nastier and nastier – that she has been frozen out of certain industry circles by his connections.

That being said, says another media source, on the other side, Brad’s public reputation has undoubtedly suffered as a result of this very public split from Angelina, and the reports of his children turning their backs on him. ‘There was a time when he was the golden boy, America’s Sweetheart,’ said the source. ‘That’s not necessarily the case these days and only time will tell if he can turn that around.’