Brad Pitt told Esquire UK he has returned to drinking after seven years sober, and an insider close to Angelina Jolie says his ex-wife is "not surprised" by the admission.
Pitt, 62, made the disclosure during a wide-ranging interview published Monday by the British magazine, where the interviewer noticed him offering a glass of wine. Asked directly, Pitt confirmed the break. "No, I got, I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon," he said, adding that he now drinks "in a more restrained manner" and in smaller quantities.
The admission reopens a chapter Pitt had publicly closed years ago, one tied to his split from Jolie, a 2016 plane incident that drew an FBI investigation, and an eight-year divorce that left most of his six children distancing themselves from his name.
In the Esquire UK interview, as the Daily Mail reported, Pitt described his return to alcohol in measured terms. He acknowledged slipping more than once before pulling back.
"In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, 'Yep, nope, not good for me.' Not in big quantities."
When pressed on whether he could drink at all, Pitt drew a line, or tried to.
"Yeah. Well... I can have a few. But I can't have a lot. I have to be professional about it."
That word, "professional", carries weight. In a 2017 GQ interview, Pitt used the same term to describe his former drinking habits, though in the opposite direction. "I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka," he said then. "I was a professional. I was good." He told GQ he had to "step away for a minute" after running his wine consumption "to the ground."
Pitt became sober roughly a year after his 2016 split from Jolie. He attended Alcoholics Anonymous for about a year and a half, and in a later interview with The New York Times, he spoke openly about the experience.
"You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard. It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself."
He added: "It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself. There's great value in that."
Those remarks made Pitt something of a public face for recovery. His decision to walk that back, however carefully he frames it, raises a fair question about whether "restrained" drinking is a stable outcome for someone who once described himself as a professional-grade drinker.
An unnamed source close to Jolie, 51, spoke to Rob Shuter's Naughty But Nice column shortly after the Esquire UK interview surfaced. The message was blunt.
"Angelina is not surprised. She tried to warn people. She knew this was always a possibility."
The insider went further, claiming Jolie has long believed that Pitt's sobriety did not mean his deeper problems had gone away. "She doesn't believe Brad has fundamentally changed," the source said. "She believes Brad is who Brad is, and no amount of sobriety or reinvention changes that."
Jolie has spoken publicly about her own struggles since the marriage ended. The couple's divorce took eight years to settle, and the fallout has been anything but quiet.
The sobriety question is inseparable from the event that ended the marriage. In 2016, Jolie accused Pitt of behaving abusively toward her and two of their children during a private flight. The FBI investigated. Pitt was never charged.
But in 2022, Jolie filed court documents revisiting the incident. CNN reported the filing's allegations, which included that Pitt had been drinking during the flight. "At one point, he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children," the filing stated.
An unnamed source close to Pitt pushed back on the filing at the time, telling CNN: "All parties have had this information for nearly six years and was used in previous legal proceedings. There is nothing new here and serves no purpose other than being a media stunt meant to inflict pain." Pitt denied the allegations.
Whatever the truth of that 2016 flight, its consequences have been concrete. Four of Pitt's six children have moved to drop his surname.
Shiloh legally changed her name to Shiloh Jolie. Zahara and Maddox published notices in the Los Angeles Daily Journal throughout June and July announcing their intention to drop "Pitt" from their names. And Vivienne recently filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court to do the same, listing her reason simply as "personal." A court hearing on her petition is scheduled for November 2.
Knox, Vivienne's twin brother, has not yet formally dropped the surname. The status of Pax's name remains unclear from available court records.
The pattern is hard to miss. When a majority of a man's children take legal steps to remove his last name, the family breakdown is not a tabloid narrative, it is a documented fact, recorded in court filings and legal notices.
Pitt has also spoken about the toll of the family turmoil in deeply personal terms. In the same Esquire UK interview, he addressed a period of suicidal ideation, though he said he was never at risk of acting on it.
"I was never suicidal in any way. It just was not my makeup. In fact, if I have any afflictions, it's probably being a congenital optimist."
But he acknowledged one exception, a stretch when "the pain was so oppressive" that he could not see a way forward. "I could feel the cold steel of the bullet in my head, and it felt like relief," he said. He described the moment as giving him a sudden understanding of why people consider suicide: "It's just looking for relief from the pain."
Pitt said his survival instincts kicked in immediately. "This s*** ain't easy," he added. "And you're talking to a guy who won the lottery."
Separate from the divorce, which itself took eight years, Pitt and Jolie remain locked in litigation over Chateau Miraval, the French winery they purchased during their marriage. Jolie sold her stake, and Pitt has pursued legal action over the sale. The dispute remains unresolved.
Pitt, meanwhile, has moved on personally. He has been dating jewelry executive Ines de Ramon since 2022. Professionally, he recently wrapped filming on The Riders, with Heart of the Beast scheduled for release this fall and another film, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, also in the pipeline.
Jolie's own post-divorce life has been marked by plans to leave the United States, though those efforts have reportedly stalled over real estate complications in Los Angeles.
Pitt framed his return to alcohol as controlled and self-aware. He said he recognized when it went wrong and corrected course. He described himself as someone who can have "a few" but not "a lot."
Anyone familiar with addiction recovery knows that framing is common, and often precedes a harder fall. Pitt himself laid out the stakes years ago when he told GQ he had "run it to the ground." He spent a year and a half in AA. He spoke publicly about the freedom of admitting ugly truths in a room full of strangers.
Now he is back to drinking, calling it professional. His ex-wife's camp says she always expected it. Four of his children are erasing his name from theirs. The FBI once investigated him over an incident tied to alcohol. And he is asking the public to believe this time is different.
Actions have consequences. Sobriety is not a phase you grow out of, it is a discipline you either keep or you don't.
