Angelina Jolie’s ‘troubled’ son faces ‘long recovery’ as she, Brad Pitt have Venice movie debuts
In a few weeks, both Jolie and Pitt are due to promote new movies at the Venice Film Festival, while their 20-year-old son recovers from 'complex trauma' he suffered in a bike accident last week.
Angelina Jolie — and Brad Pitt, to a lesser extent — may be faced with difficult personal and professional choices in the coming weeks as their son, Pax Jolie-Pitt, faces a “long road of recovery” after suffering “complex trauma” in an electronic bike accident last week.
The 20-year-old son of the bitterly divorced couple has left the intensive-care unit of a Los Angeles hospital, where his mother has remained by his side since his July 29 accident in Los Angeles, People magazine reported Monday.
Pax Jolie-Pitt suffered a head injury and possible brain bleed in the crash, in which he was not wearing a helmet and was knocked unconscious, leaving witnesses to wonder if he had been killed, TMZ reported. Now he must undergo a long course of “recovery and physical therapy,” a source told People.
But as Jolie-Pitt continues to recover, his mother may be left to decide whether she wants to leave his side to travel to Venice in a few weeks. Jolie is due to promote “Maria” at the glittery Venice Film Festival, which opens Aug. 28, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Maria,” a biopic of the legendary opera singer Maria Callas, marks Jolie’s first starring role in a prestigious, Oscar-fare film in more than 15 years. It’s directed by Pablo Larraín, the Chilean auteur who led Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart to Oscar nominations in his previous biopics of famous, tragic women, “Jackie” and “Spencer,” about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Diana, respectively.
Complicating Jolie’s “Maria” debut is the fact that Pitt also is expected to be at the Venice Film Festival, to promote “Wolfs,” an action drama in which he co-stars with George Clooney, his longtime friend and former co-star, The Hollywood Reporter also said.
The Daily Mail reported last week that arrangements had been made behind the scenes to make sure that the warring ex-couple — who continue to be embroiled in legal disputes eight years after they split — will not be at the film festival at the same time.
Their son’s traumatic bike accident also has left Pitt “upset” that he has not been able to see his son in the hospital, or speak to him, the Daily Mail reported. Pitt has long been estranged from his son, as he’s also become estranged from most — if not all — of his six children with Jolie.
Despite their lack of contact, a source told DailyMail.com: “Brad is distraught and worried over Pax’s accident, but he is unable to reach him.” If Pitt is so worried now, it’s likely that he’ll have his son on his mind when he travels to Venice.
“It is very upsetting to Brad whenever he hears of one of the kids being hurt and he feels completely powerless because there is nothing that he can do at all,” the source also said.
Jolie-Pitt was riding his BMX-style electric bike on busy Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Angeles, near his mother’s home, during rush hour on July 29, TMZ reported. As he approached a red light on his bike, he slammed into the back of a car stopped at an intersection, police sources told TMZ.
Whatever injury Jolie-Pitt suffered, it’s possible he made it worse because of his reported habit of not wearing a helmet while riding his bike around his hometown of Los Angeles. TMZ reported that Jolie-Pitt had recently been seen cruising around the city on his bike, and almost always without a helmet.
Page Six quoted a source who said that Jolie-Pitt had been involved in “multiple” accidents on his bicycle prior to Monday’s crash, leaving his friends worried over his “reckless” behavior. The Daily Mail also reported that Jolie also has been concerned about her “troubled” son and had been seeking help for him.
Jolie-Pitt is the second oldest of the six children once happily shared by Jolie and Pitt. That is, until Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016, and she and Pitt became locked in a bitter, years-long divorce battle over custody and the division of property, notably a French winery and chateau that the former super couple purchased together in better times.
Jolie-Pitt’s five siblings are Maddox, 22, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. Jolie-Pitt was adopted by Jolie from a Vietnamese orphanage in 2007, when he was 3 years old, and Pitt joined in adopting him the following year.
It’s been reported that Jolie-Pitt and the two older siblings, Maddox and Zahara, are estranged from Pitt and have “virtually no contact” with him. When Jolie-Pitt was 16, he reportedly used his private Instagram account to blast his father on Father’s Day in 2020. He called Pitt an “awful human being” and a “world class (expletive)” who makes the youngest of his six children “tremble in fear.”
A lot of the bitterness between Jolie and Pitt stems from her allegations that the “Once Upon in Hollywood” star was heavily intoxicated and verbally and physically abusive to her and several of their children during a September 2016 private plane ride from Europe to Los Angeles. Pitt has long denied the allegations, but his reported behavior on the plane ride prompted Jolie to file for divorce.