Despite having six children, Brad Pitt is reportedly gearing up for a lonely Christmas. His relationship with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie and their six children is particularly fraught at the moment, not least because he is about to take her to court.

Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in 2016 after an alleged altercation took place on a family flight from France to LA. Eight years later, said divorce is yet to be finalised because of the former couple’s ongoing legal disputes. The main one being over the rightful ownership of Jolie’s 50% shares in their French winery, Chateau Miraval.

In November, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in favour of the case heading to trial and for Pitt’s remaining claims against Jolie to proceed. However, the judge also ruled that Pitt must disclose documents that Jolie’s lawyer claims will prove ‘communications concerning abuse, lies to authorities, and years of cover up’ on Pitt’s part.

Due to begin in the spring, the trial is likely to garner an enormous amount of publicity and be emotionally and financially draining for all involved. It is also likely to widen the rift that already exists between Pitt and his children.

‘His actions harmed Angelina and their children and are central to this case,’ said Jolie’s lawyer, Paul Murphy, in a statement. ‘But I want to again emphasise that Angelina never wanted any of this. 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.’

It is possible that the actions in question are Pitt’s alleged ‘years of abuse’. The actor was cleared of any wrongdoing following an investigation into the fateful flight in 2016 and has denied all allegations of abuse, but Jolie’s defence team is adamant that next year’s trial will reveal more to the story.

This might explain why Pitt and Jolie’s children have seemingly sided with Jolie – at least in public. Their three daughters, Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne have all dropped ‘Pitt’ from their surnames, while their sons, Maddox, Pax and Knox have all been by Jolie’s side on the red carpet in the press run for her latest film, Maria.

Pax and Maddox also worked on the film, in which Jolie’s character Maria Callas is in a toxic relationship that was shrouded in allegations abuse, in the assistant director department. Jolie has spoken about the ‘pain’ they saw her go through on set. ‘The character [Maria Callas] has a lot of pain and they’ve of course seen me go through a lot of things, but they hadn’t experienced me expressing a lot of the pain that usually a parent hides from a child,’ she told the BBC.

‘So they were there to witness some of that, but then we would hug or they would bring me cups of tea.’ The actress claimed the experience helped her find ‘a new way’ of being honest with her children about her feelings ‘in an even greater way’.

Speaking to The Sunday Times about the film she added that her sons ‘were able to consider the relationships in the film and the violence’ and said she felt fortunate because these are ‘things that sometimes you don’t have the opportunity to discuss with your sons’.

Pax, for his part, is also the son who took to Instagram on Father’s Day in 2020 to denounce Pitt as a ‘world class ass hole’ and a ‘f*cking awful human being’. He concluded his post by writing, ‘You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell. You may tell yourself and the world whatever you want, but the truth will come to light someday.’

While the details of their current family dynamics remain unclear, it certainly does not seem as though many of Pitt’s children will be visiting him over the festive period. Instead, he is likely to spend the day with his girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, who he has been with since late 2022. The same was true of his 61st birthday 18 December.

‘Brad will be spending Christmas with Ines and there’s talk of them heading to Missouri to enjoy some time with his parents and siblings,’ an insider tells Grazia. ‘His birthday was by all accounts a quiet affair too, celebrated with Ines and some of their friends.’

Apparently, it’s a difficult time of year for Pitt who is ‘missing’ his children and is keen to spend some time with them. Of course, it hasn’t always been this way. In 2014, in an interview with Psychologies Magazine when he and Jolie were still married, Pitt said, ‘I care about [my children] more than I care about myself.’

After their separation, the exes were embroiled in a five-year custody battle and Pitt was granted joint custody of their then-five minor children, which now only includes their twins. In recent years, though, he is thought to have ‘virtually no contact’ with his adult children and limited contact and visitation rights with his younger children.

‘He is likely to get the obligatory visit from the twins at some point,’ Grazia’s source adds, ‘but as for any lengthy or meaningful parental time that seems to be off the table because they aren’t interested. Of course he’s heartbroken, all the kids save the twins have dropped his name and have essentially washed their hands of him.’

As things currently stand, it does not look like these fractured family relationships will heal any time soon – especially not in 2025. The upcoming trial could well run into 2026, with Jolie potentially having to wait until then to take the stand. If Pitt is hoping to smooth tensions with his children, it is unlikely that will happen in the court room. ‘It only alienates him further from his children,’ the source went on, ‘who are firmly on their mother’s side and making arrangements for the holiday season without him.’