It has been 19 months since Brad Pitt, 60, was spotted on a date during what was the early days of his now much more serious relationship with 35-year-old Ines de Ramon. The pair was spotted at a Bono concert in Los Angeles, in November 2022, and just a few days later, a source told People magazine that Pitt and de Ramon had actually already ‘been dating for a few months.’ Since then, de Ramon, who works for LA jewellery company Anita Ko, has accompanied Pitt to the premiere of his film Babylon and they’ve even moved in together, living in Pitt’s home in Los Feliz, east Los Angeles.

Now, US reports have claimed that marriage, and even children, are next on the list for the couple who have, til now, managed to keep their relationship as under the radar as is possible for one of the world’s most famous men, who also just so happens to be going through one of the most high profile divorces Hollywood has ever seen. Pitt’s split from his ex-wife Angelina Jolie has famously still yet to materialise into a fully finalised divorce, with their seven year, incredibly acrimonious, divorce still inching towards a close.

Following previous battles over custody, there is one other final legal sticking point between the couple: the battle over Jolie’s decision to sell her part of their French vineyard Chateau Miraval to a Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler without telling Pitt. The case – which is separate to the divorce, although is holding up the finalisation of their financial affairs in the split – is the reason that explosive new documents have emerged which suggest that Pitt had been physically and emotionally abusive to Jolie long before the now infamous private jet flight from France to Los Angeles in 2016 during which he is said by Jolie to have turned on her and the children – and was investigated by the FBI (Pitt denies all claims and the FBI dropped their investigation).

That Pitt is becoming ever serious with de Ramon is no real surprise, after all he has been separated and in the midst of a divorce for almost eight years now. But that he wants to throw himself into another marriage, and possibly even children, with the 35-year-old is something of a surprise given that he’s still not technically divorced from Jolie (although they were both declared legally single by a judge in 2019, the divorce is still ongoing). However, sources tell Grazia that Pitt is eager to move on from the ‘nightmare’ legal episode that he has been living through the last eight years. 

‘Pitt has tried to turn his life around a lot since his split from Jolie, he’s done a lot of work to try and improve himself and his relationship with de Ramon has been a massively positive influence on him,’ says one source. Indeed, Pitt quit drinking post-split after realising he had a problem with alcohol. ‘I didn’t want to live that way any more,’ Pitt told GQ Style in 2017 when asked about his struggles with alcohol addiction and going cold turkey. He reportedly hasn’t had a drink in seven years. The source says that de Ramon is known for her positive attitude. ‘She’s patient, easy going and has a great sense of humour,’ they said, adding that Pitt’s friends really like her. 

This is all well and good for Pitt, but there’s still the uncomfortable issue of Angelina Jolie. While it’s clear she has very much moved on herself, and is busy with her Broadway production of The Outsiders as well as a Maria Callas biopic out next year, Jolie has also been very clear in her assertions about what she feels was the damaging nature of her marriage to Pitt. In papers filed last month, Jolie’s attorneys detailed, ‘Pitt’s history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s plane trip from France to Los Angeles,’ although they add that ‘this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well.’

The court papers claimed that Jolie has evidence of ‘Pitt’s history of physical abuse of the family and abuse of Jolie’ and claims the children continue to experience ‘significant and ongoing post-traumatic stress’. Indeed an Instagram story thought to have been posted by the couple’s son Pax, 16 at the time, said the Hollywood star made his four youngest children ‘tremble in fear’ and ‘made the lives of those closest to Pax a constant hell’, according to a screengrab revealed in November last year. 

In the most recent papers, attorneys for Jolie refer to a ‘history of abuse, control and cover-ups’ and claim she has ‘testimony, emails, photographs, and other evidence’ which, they say, will show how Pitt tried to conceal his behaviour if they come to trial. The actor’s denials of physical abuse are described in the court documents as ‘gaslighting’. 

With four of their six children soon to be 18 or older, Pitt is now thought to be estranged from most of them, with adopted sons Pax, 20, and Maddox, 22, and adopted daughter Zahara, 18 all thought to have dropped ‘Pitt’ from their double barrelled surnames, and daughter Shiloh legally applying to do the same when she turned 18 last month. Daughter Vivienne is also thought to go by simply ‘Vivienne Jolie’. 

Those in the know do believe that Jolie and Pitt could be nearing the end of their, hugely expensive, legal battles which their close friends certain that when their cases are finalised they will be able to move on completely. In an interview last year, Jolie said she had taken a step back from Hollywood in order to ‘heal’ with her family. ‘We had to heal,’ the 49-year-old told WSJ. ‘There are things we needed to heal from.’ Indeed she has admitted that the entire divorce has left her ‘traumatised’ and that at times she had feared for her family.

Now, though, both she and Pitt, and de Ramon, are trying to live their lives in their new normal. For the latter, certainly, their new horizon could be a much needed fresh start. But his past with Jolie will still very much be public knowledge…