What Tore Them Apart

Star has the Inside Story on the Heartbreaking Estrangement Between Brad Pitt and Son Maddox — and Why Angelina Jolie Had Checked Out of Their Marriage Long Ago.
 

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ONE day in 2005 — a year after they began their stunning romance — Angelina Jolie and her lover, Brad Pitt, were playing with toy cars on the floor of their hotel room with her adopted son Maddox, then 4. Up until that moment, “It had never crossed my mind that Mad was going to need a father — certainly not that it would be this man I just met,”

Angelina later revealed. Suddenly, Maddox “just out the blue called [Brad] Dad... we both heard it and didn’t say anything, and just looked at each other... That was probably the most defining moment, when [Maddox] decided that we would all be a family.”

Sadly, no one could have foreseen that the bond between father and son would be so heartbreakingly shattered. Indeed, Star has learned that in the wake of Angie’s Sept. 19 divorce filing — five days after Brad’s alleged verbal and physical confrontation with Maddox, 15, on a private flight from France to L.A. — Brad and Maddox had a secret meeting, where it was hoped they could begin to mend their rift. “Brad tried to have a heart-to-heart with Maddox, but it didn’t go like he had hoped,” an insider tells Star. “It was really tense — and then Maddox suddenly lost his temper, yelled, ‘You’re not my father!’ and stormed out of the room!”

BROKEN VOW