Brad Pitt has a new film coming out. He plays a nomadic race car driver who returns to Formula 1 30 years after a near fatal injury. Pitt, who also worked as a producer on F1, understandably wants the film to be a hit. In fact, his PR team seems to be, excuse the pun, in overdrive.

In the past month we’ve seen more of Pitt than we have in several years. Given that he is still embroiled in an ongoing toxic legal dispute with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie – with their divorce only finalised in December despite formally separating eight years prior – his public withdrawal has made sense.

However, it seems that with the marriage behind him and F1 out on 27 June, Pitt is taking great steps to rehabilitate his public persona. He’s doing press interviews and red carpet chats; he’s getting papped on double dates with his girlfriend Ines de Ramon and Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper. He’s, shall we say, ‘experimenting’ with his look. Namely, in the space of a single June weekend, he donned not one, but four eye-catching throwback ensembles. This included a bit of clashing tie-dye leisure wear that made him look like a nursery school display board, a blue crushed velvet blazer with a pair of Simon Cowell-inspired flares, some ‘90s decorator cargo pants, and a silk balloon shirt tucked into velvet-sheen grey trousers.

Naturally, Pitt’s new look has got a lot of people talking, earning him the title of ‘our new street style icon’ from some corners of the media, plenty of references to his Fight Club character Tyler Durden, and accusations that he’s ‘having a midlife crisis’ from others. Is it all an inside job? The jury is out.

However, his F1 promo wardrobe is the least of his worries. Read any story about Pitt and his legal saga with Jolie is not far out of mind. In his first big profile of the F1 press tour with GQ, for example, it came up pretty quickly. He was asked whether he felt ‘different’ now that the divorce is official or whether he felt a sense of ‘relief’. ‘No, I don’t think it was that major of a thing,’ he responded. ‘Just something coming to fruition. Legally.’

The eight-year back and forth over the custody of their minor children – Pitt and Jolie share six children, two of which are still under the age of 18 – and the ongoing battle over the legal ownership of Jolie’s shares of their French winery, Chateau Miraval, suggest otherwise. The latter will see the couple meet in court next year and has unearthed troubling accusations on Jolie’s part that Pitt subjected her to ‘years of abuse’ throughout their relationship.

In 2021, Jolie sold her 50% shares of Chateau Miraval to the Stoli Group, owned by Russian Oligarch Yuri Shefler. Pitt claims she did so without consent and subsequently sued her a year later. Jolie then filed a countersuit claiming Pitt was ‘waging a vindictive war against her’ and alleges she attempted to sell her shares to him in the first instance but refused when he asked her to sign an NDA to cover up said abuse.

At the end of 2024, the judge ruled that the case would head to trial, which was seemingly a victory for team Pitt until they also ruled that Pitt must disclose the documents Jolie’s team claim will prove the darker side of their relationship. Pitt has denied the accusations and called Jolie’s request a ‘sensationalist fishing expedition’.

This context, which is never far from public view, is at jarring odds with Pitt’s nonchalance. Speaking at the F1 premiere in Mexico City he made similarly surprising comments about family. ‘No matter the mistake, you just learn from [it] and move on,’ he told Entertainment Tonight. ‘It’ll lead to the next success. When you get to my age, you realise how important it is to surround yourself with the people you love, the people that love you back. Friends, family, and that’s it. From there, we get to go make things. It’s a pretty simple, I think, equation.’

These comments might ring hollow with Pitt’s own children, all of whom have taken a marked stand with their mother throughout the divorce and two of whom have formally dropped ‘Pitt’ from their surnames. The estrangement was perhaps best illustrated by their son Pax’s 2020 Father’s Day post where he called Pitt a ‘world class asshole’, an ‘awful human being’ and wrote, ‘you continue to make the lives of those closest to me a constant hell’.

This sentiment was echoed by Jolie’s lawyer after the judge ruled for their case to head to trial. ‘I want to emphasise that Angelina never wanted any of this,’ her attorney Paul Murphy said. ‘She never pressed charges, she left all their properties, and she is the one who tried to sell him the business in the first place. To this day, Mr. Pitt has never been held accountable for his actions and has at all times controlled Miraval and the winery, yet he still demands more. She wants this to end, the children want this to end, and Mr. Pitt should focus on healing their family, not pursuing lawsuits.’

Pitt might be in the headlines for his turn as a race car driver this month, and for wearing outlandish satin blouses, but next year it won’t be such a smooth ride.