Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s estrangement grew even uglier this week, as the Lara Croft actor alleged that Pitt “choked” one of their children and “struck another in the face” onboard a private jet in 2016.
The former Hollywood couple share six children together who, as per Jolie’s statement, were frightened by Pitt’s actions during the allegedly turbulent flight between France and Los Angeles on 14 September 2016.
A representative for Pitt has denied Jolie’s allegations, calling them “completely untrue” in a statement to CNN.
Jolie’s claims were included in a counter-complaint filed on Tuesday (4 October), as part of an ongoing legal battle over the French winery she once owned with Pitt.
After dating for nearly 10 years, Pitt and Jolie got married in 2014 before the latter filed for divorce from the Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood actor, citing “irreconcilable differences”.
After being declared legally single in 2019, Pitt and Jolie were granted joint legal custody of their six children in 2021.
Here’s everything to know about them:
Family tree
Jolie adopted Maddox – born Rath Vibol – from a Cambodian orphanage 20 years ago, when the Maleficent actor was still married to Billy Bob Thornton. He is currently attending Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.
The following year, Jolie travelled to Ethiopia to adopt her daughter Zahara. Pitt reportedly accompanied Jolie on her visit and applied to become both Maddox and Zahara’s adoptive father in 2005, the BBC reported.
The 17-year-old recently started classes at Spelman College, an esteemed historically Black liberal arts college for women in Atlanta, Georgia.
The former Hollywood couple welcomed their first biological daughter Shiloh in May 2006, after dating for around two years. At the time, People paid a staggering $4m (£3.4m) for exclusive rights to Shiloh’s first photographs,Insider reported.
In 2007, Jolie travelled to Vietnam to adopt her second son Pax, who was three at the time. Pitt adopted him the following year, as their family continued to expand.
That same year, Jolie and Pitt also welcomed twins Vivienne and Knox, now 14.
Careers in showbiz
Nearly all of the former couple’s children have dipped their toes in the world of entertainment.
Maddox, who turned 21 on 5 August, had an uncredited cameo role in Pitt’s 2013 film World War Z. At the film’s premiere in New York, Pitt revealed his eldest son played a zombie who was shot in the movie.
He is credited as an executive producer on Jolie’s 2017 film First They Killed My Father, an adaptation of Cambodian-American activist Loung Ung’s eponymously titled memoir.
In a 2015 interview with Vogue, Jolie revealed Maddox and Pax “will research archives and work on the shoot” of the film.
Speaking of Maddox’s involvement in her Netflix film, Jolie told Vogue: “The film will change Mad, but as much as he’s discovering the horrors of the past, he’ll also be discovering the culture before the war, the dignity of his country, how they held their heads up.”
In 2016, Jolie confirmed Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and Knox lent their voices to some of the pandas in Kung Fu Panda 3.
“They were kind of shy,” Jolie described her children’s reactions to being on set, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight .
“They don’t really want to be actors, but I didn’t want them to miss the opportunity,” she continued, adding, “They came in, and they had a lot of fun with it.”
Shiloh also recently appeared as a dancer in the music video for Doja Cat’s “Vegas”, part of the 2022 Elvis Presley biopic directed by Baz Luhrmann.
Finally, Vivienne played a young Princess Aurora alongside Jolie in 2014’s Maleficent, earning a reported $3,000 per week for the role.
Extra-curriculars
The Jolie-Pitt children also have other, varied interests.
Pitt and Jolie’s eldest daughter Zahara launched her own line of jewellery, the Zahara Collection, as part of a 2019 collaboration with Robert Procop, as reported by People.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour in 2016, Jolie revealed Pax was interested in music and DJing.
She also said that all her children were learning different languages at the time, adding: “I asked them what languages they wanted to learn and Shi is learning Khmai, which is a Cambodian language, Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Z is speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic, and Knox is learning sign language.”
