People: Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie ‘had very different parenting styles,’ you guys

This week, Angelina Jolie’s lawyers told the court that they wanted all of Brad Pitt’s communications from the 2016 plane terror incident and beyond, all of his comms having to do with the finances of Miraval, the proposed sale of Nouvel to Pitt, his hiring of a crisis management team, everything. This came after Jolie had to turn over all of her staff NDAs to the court, because Pitt wants to play games and pretend like he wasn’t trying to force her silence about his abuse. People Mag’s first story about Jolie’s new request came from Team Pitt. Team Jolie responded in People Mag as well, with Jolie’s lawyer issuing a statement basically saying that Pitt can drop his lawsuit at any time but until he does, Angelina is going to defend herself fully.

Something weird happened with both of those stories, which both contained quotes and information exclusive to People Mag – those stories were moved off People’s main page really quickly, and you really had to make the effort to look for them. My low-stakes conspiracy is that People is still trying to play both sides and they’re especially not trying to piss off Pitt’s crisis team, because they still want to get those stories about his relationship with Ines de Ramon and whatever. So after People Mag did an exclusive with Jolie’s lawyer and then buried that exclusive, wouldn’t you know, People got an exclusive from Brad’s camp. I cannot eyeroll any harder at this.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had different methods in mind when it came to raising their six kids. A source tells PEOPLE that Pitt, 60, and Jolie, 49, had differing parenting approaches during their marriage, which caused disagreements that played a role in the end of their union.

“During their marriage, they had very different parenting styles. Brad grew up with structure and wanted more rules for the kids,” the source explains. “Angie had a different upbringing and wanted the kids to be more independent and responsible for their own schedules from a young age.”

“Brad and Angie clashed over this. However, they did always have the same vision for their kids’ future. They wanted the kids to thrive by experiencing the world first-hand and not only learn from traditional schooling.”

“They still both really care,” a separate source tells PEOPLE. “They both care about the children.”

The former couple shares six kids together — Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, Knox and Vivienne, 16. Earlier this month, a source close to the family told PEOPLE that Pitt has “virtually no contact” with his adult kids, but still has visitation with the younger ones.

“He has virtually no contact with the adult kids. His engagement with the younger kids is more limited in recent months because of his filming schedule,” the source said. At the time, Pitt was on location in Europe filming his upcoming racing movie F1.

[From People]

It was all because Angelina was such a loosey-goosey hippie mom, you guys! That’s what started all of this! Angelina’s parenting style MADE Brad Pitt terrorize and abuse his wife and children on a plane in 2016. Angelina’s parenting style made the kids want nothing to do with him and drop his name as soon as they could. Eight years later, and Pitt is still scrambling to come up with an effective strategy to explain why Angelina left him and why his children despise him. This is all he can come up with – dog-whistle bullsh-t insinuating that Angelina is a bad mother or that the kids want to be with her because she doesn’t discipline them. All of the Jolie-haters have been singing that song for decades too, that we would see how awful she is when the kids grew up. Four of the kids are adults now plus two 16-year-olds, and they’re all still close to Jolie and they’re all productive, healthy, cool and capable young people. Young people who want nothing to do with Pitt or his “structure.”

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

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57 Responses to “People: Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie ‘had very different parenting styles,’ you guys”

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  1. JayBlue says:

    Yeah, because everything about pitts behaviour screams ‘structured.’ I would have guessed it the other way around, with angie focusing on being dependable, and Brad more concerned about his own freedom to do whatever the hell he wants.

    • ML says:

      Yeah, Angie being dependable and fostering her kids making their own schedules and becoming independent doesn’t exactly read as a totaL lack of structure—especially in the context of BP’s issues with alcohol and drugs.

    • Bad Janet says:

      This is classic narcissistic behavior. He is getting People involved in his DARVO antics and projecting his chaos on Angie, by pretending his abusive behavior is the only source of law and order in the home. Sure, Brad.

    • bisynaptic says:

      Yup.

  2. Leah says:

    Lol. Sure. Different parenting styles totally explains why his kids seem to loathe him and why he’s forced to continue abusing his ex through the court system. That’s what did it. /s

    • Flower says:

      And fathers like this will use some crappy excuse like ‘they’re not afraid to be the bad cop’ if it means their children learn discipline or some other variation of explaining away their abusive parenting tactics.

      Men like Brad Pitt have been coddled and ‘yes Sir’d’ for so long that any accountability feels like abuse to them.

    • Giddy says:

      Yes! Different parenting styles explains it all! She was too easy-going while he preferred to strangle one of the children.

      • Tisme says:

        Exactly. Angie was a nurturing mother and Brad was violent and physically abusive. Hmmm different parenting styles indeed!!

      • Orangestoapples says:

        Ah yes, one is a reliable parent an the other one doesn’t “strike” his kids “in the face”. Very different parenting styles, indeed.

      • bisynaptic says:

        🎯

  3. sevenblue says:

    “During their marriage, they had very different parenting styles”

    Brad was pro choking kids, Angelina was against it, according to the court fillings. You can’t trick us, you smelly old man.

    • JanetDR says:

      You gave me a chuckle this morning! 🤣

    • Hypocrisy says:

      Exactly 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼.. can’t wait because he is going to reach a saturation point on the bs he puts out and eventually one or all of those adult children will tell the truth. He’s going to be “Mommy Dearested” someday. I’m disgusted with myself for even liking him in the past.

  4. Mayko says:

    Well, whatever she did seems to be working fine, the kids seem happy. So I’m not sure it’s making the point he wants to make…

    • Anna says:

      His point is: it is always her fault. Too relaxed as mom, too controlling, not caring about education or putting too much pressure on the kids, the list goes on. Once a woman becomes a mother, there are always millions ways to criticize her. I was praised by being a caring mom and criticized cruelly for the same. Depending on what the other person wanted to achieve. I feel for Angie and admire her dedication to her children and really trying to take the high road at first and now simply fighting for their peace.

      I will never watch a Brad movie again. He is pathetic.

  5. Whyforthelove says:

    I rage laughed when I read this yesterday. Indeed they had very different parenting styles, he was violent and abusive and she was a free range parent. Different indeed. Go blow smoke dude

  6. Flower says:

    Sidenote – I love how Angie’s daughters are always raiding her wardrobe – so cute.

    On topic it is insane that they’re still at this. Brad needs to stop briefing the press against the mother of his children and just move on. It’s clear that all he is looking for is acceptance in the court of public opinion. Instigating a PR war to destroy your ex wife to gain that public support just speaks to how much of a failure Brad is as a husband, father and even a human being.

    I actually get the ick now when I see a new Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp film, I am just so switched off. This new breed of PR people and crisis consultants are just plain overdoing it. Everyone knows that relationships and marriages fall apart, but this new trend of needing to make one person the monster to save the other’s career and especially when there are children involved is unnecessary. For all Gwyneth Paltrows faults, I really feel like other celebrity couples could take a leaf out of her book on how to publicly end a relationship or partnership.

    Also, I cannot believe he is trying to use Angie’s parenting style as a pretext to explain away his abusive behaviour and the usual corners of the press are enabling this.

  7. Sara says:

    Haha the alcoholic abuser wanted more structure for his kids! How about dad not getting drunk all the time for structure.

    • Mika says:

      Also it is so funny that he thinks he can pull “Brad wanted structure” and ” he doesn’t have time for visitation because he’s busy!!” In the same quote. That’s not how structure works.

    • bisynaptic says:

      🎯

  8. ML says:

    Wtf is this? 1. If you are in a romantic relationship with someone, there’s an essentially 100% chance that you are not going to agree with them or think the same way about stuff. 2. There are parents who are and who are less on the same page about parenting. Kids know who to go to in certain situations when their parents are in a decent relationship as well. 3. Brad Pitt abused his wife and children…what exactly is this article saying about his reaction to being in a relationship and raising kids?? 4. When parents are not on the same page, they usually communicate with each other and then they figure out what is really important to them and if necessary they compromise. And clearly BP couldn’t. 5. Parents with substance abuse issues usually don’t provide structure.
    And the fact that his twins are now at the age where they can opt out of visitation…interesting point in that article there mentioning the source saying that earlier this month he still has visitation rights to the youngest kids.

    • Flower says:

      @ML agreed – but notice how the narrative has now changed to Angie being a hippy parent, sadly that is what people will focus on and not Brad’s abusive behaviour.

      He is also using these PR outages to communicate to his kids that he ‘just had their best interests in mind’.

      This will end badly for him and his children will never forgive him.

  9. Jais says:

    Angelina’s parenting style isn’t one of abuse like brad’s so yeah they had very different parenting styles. Just not the bs version that’s being represented by brad’s team to people mag.

  10. Lucy says:

    I kept seeing this headline yesterday and I refuse to read it because eff that guy. Boo hoo they had different styles, means it’s fine to choke their mother, right?

    I think I’m inarticulate with rage

  11. Tursitops says:

    Illegal, legal
    Effective, ineffective
    Loving, terrorizing

  12. BlueSky says:

    By structure does he mean being constantly drunk, High, and beating his wife and kids? Family values. 🙄🙄

    • SarahCS says:

      He’s the guy who thinks you’re being ‘soft’ for not physically punishing/abusing kids isn’t he? That’s what I’m getting from this (other than well no sh!t sherlock!)

  13. Elaine says:

    I taught parenting for over a decade. Authoritarian parenting styles aren’t effective and produce kids with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and behavioral problems. The children also end up with emotional intelligence deficits and more problems with emotional regulation. There’s miles of research backing that up.

    So is Brad Pitt’s people saying he was an ineffective authoritarian parent style? Authoritarian parenting styles have a pretty high estrangement rates and the parents themselves have high rates of conflict with others.

    Way to tell on yourself there Brad Pitt.

  14. LadyE says:

    This is such a weird point to highlight. The kids are from everything known extraordinarily well-adjusted, with the older ones seemingly doing quite well in the universities of their choice and the younger ones exploring their unique interests. None of these kids have had a peep, nary a hint, of typical teen bad behavior, rebellion. And there’s 6 of them! That’s super impressive! One of the Bush girls got a DUI, Sasha Obama smokes and pretty clearly not just cigarettes lol, Bristol Palin…well we all know that saga. This isn’t a judgment on any of these young ladies, it’s just to highlight that they all grew up in really “structured” environments with “rules” and still did what they were gonna do. I understand different parenting approaches, but I’d think conflict would arise when there’s an actual issue of concern with a kid- doesn’t want to go to college, one parent supports letting them “figure it out”, the other sees this as derailing of future that kid doesn’t understand consequences of; caught drinking, grounded or no biggie; etc. I just don’t understand why this was an “ongoing conflict” when there doesn’t appear to be anything to indicate that the kids needed a course correct.

    • Isabella says:

      Good point. But so what if Sasha Obama smokes? So do millions of other Americans, I hate it when the tabloids spy on her. Even they haven’t accused her of smoking weed. She seems very normal.

  15. Louise177 says:

    Growing independence doesn’t mean no rules. The funny thing is Brad has said several times that Angelina is the organized, structured one. Doesn’t jive with anything goes that Brad is trying to paint. The irony of claiming Angelina is a bad parent when three kids have attended college (wow I feel old), none are on social media trying to be famous, or getting into legal trouble. Whereas none of the kids want see Brad and he’s tangled up with lawsuits and investigations with the vineyard and possibly still with Make It Right.

  16. Amy Bee says:

    When Brad met her she already had Maddox and was in the process of adopting Zahara. If he had issues with her parenting style why did he then proceed to create a family with her? Furthermore, it’s alleged that he got into an altercation with two his children because they were trying to protect their mother from his abuse on that plane ride, so who’s the bad parent here?

  17. CJW says:

    All of this is 100% on Pitt, all he had to do was acknowledge his behavior of abuse, work on his issues, make amends to his ex-wife and children, and for f*cks sakes WORK on his relationship with them. The fact he can’t or won’t is all I need to know about this gigantic POS!

  18. CLOVE says:

    Whatever Angelina did to parent these kids has been excellent. You don’t hear them getting in trouble or acting up in LA, where temptation surrounds them. By structure, does that mean drinking a Russian under the table with their vodka (Brad Pitt’s word), being abusive, or choking them? Can he go away? Now he’s talking about parenting kids who want nothing to do with him that he poured alcohol on and choked. Please make this make sense.

    This man cannot go one day without talking about Angelina, which makes me think he’s not over her. There would not be enough time if he were so in love with the Heidi Fleiss lookalike. Also, he never got the attention that Angelina has and still gets.

    He should concentrate on the French government’s suit against him.

  19. Mslove says:

    Yeah, Biden & Trump have different methods when it comes to being president of the US, so what’s the point? Brad Pitt sucks.

  20. Jaded says:

    So Brad, is being a structured parent the reason why your kids are dropping Pitt from their names one by one? Is being a structured parent the reason that your career seems to come first because you’ve admitted your work schedule is what’s preventing you from seeing them? No, it’s the kids who don’t want to see you. Apparently they prefer their mother’s *different* parenting style, i.e. loving, nurturing, encouraging, giving them the opportunities and freedoms to pursue their own goals, which they seem to be doing quite successfully without you around to ignore or bully them.

  21. Jay says:

    Weird – everything we have ever found out about these children paints them as responsible, pleasant, and like they have their sh!t together – far more than middle-aged Brad does, in fact. Is his team trying to bait one of the older kids to go on the record trying to defend Angelina? So he can point to “estrangement”? I don’t see where this strategy gets him.

  22. lucy2 says:

    Even if all that were true…who cares? He physically and emotionally abused the children and his wife, no one gives a rats about his “parenting style”. And he can say he “cares” all he wants, but the truth is he destroyed the family and has not fixed anything, and none of the kids want anything to do with him.

  23. atlantababe says:

    pouring alcohol across your terrified children is such a great parenting style…he called one of his kids a serial killer bc of they way the dressed. and his daughter nearly choked on an ice cube because he was drunk off his ass. he is not fit to be a parent.

  24. Ace says:

    Pitt and his team are betting a lot on those kids keeping silent while he continues to treat their mother like crap. I’ll make a note of the date when the twins turn eighteen, let see what happens then.

  25. JustMe says:

    Seen an article that he’s open to children with Ines..cause that’s a great idea 🙄

  26. FIFI says:

    “Structure” That’s abuser language for obedience and control.

  27. etso says:

    Yes. His style is very hands-on.

  28. StillDouchesOfCambridge says:

    The kids needed more structure, says Brad, the substance and violent abuser. Yeah, right. Ok

  29. Lau says:

    That particular PR stunt could have worked if only one of the children had openly split from the rest of the family to publicly support Pitt. It has not been the case and he’s mad about it. Why can’t he keep pretending to be playing happy family with his girlfriend and leave his children alone ? They clearly want nothing to do with him.

  30. Eleonor says:

    I said this before.
    BP should take Pr notes from the other crappy dad Tom Cruise.
    Finalise the divorce, fly under the radar for a while and move somewhere else.
    This could do wonder fir his image.

    • Eva says:

      It’s too late for that now. Brad made too much of a mess. Plus, his obsession with Angelina is too strong. I don’t think he can leave her alone.

  31. Erica says:

    Pitt is both pathetic and desperate at this point. His PR team is really grasping at straws. In the 8 years Jolie has been the sole parent  there has been no pictures, videos, tweets, or any media coverage of the kids being out of control while being raised by their loosey-goosey hippie mom the opposite actually.

    Yet the kids don’t want to have anything to do with their ( I hit him just not in the face  ) structured  “dad”  who has to have supervised visitation with no overnight stays,  as well as take a alcohol test and comply with the kids psychiatrist when he sees his kids.

    Pitt the winner here . lol 

  32. María from Tercer Mundo says:

    He needs to stop using the kids, 4 of 6 adults now, for his PR. This particular report is creepy and a complete nonsense after the details of his abuses. Actually is very bad for his image and very cool for Angelina the only parent, parenting for 8 long years
    You know, his PR needs to take note of Tom cruise: he is an absent father too but he never is using Suri for his image. Repect that.

  33. paintybox says:

    One thing kids don’t need from their parents or any adults, ever ever ever, is violence. It doesn’t matter what Brad’s parenting philosophy is because violence had (and has) no place in his family life – period.

  34. Silent Star says:

    I see his PR team found a nice way to say he has a “controlling, self absorbed, alcoholic authoritarian” parenting style.