A Family Divided

He’s hurt, she’s stressed and the kids are bewildered as Brad and Angie prepare to spend their first Christmas apart.

- Nicola Whitfield

THIS time last year they were preparing for a holiday most of us can only dream of: an $18 000 (R247 000) a night stay at an exclusive beach resort in Phuket, Thailand.

The island, a slice of paradise shaded by palm trees and lapped by turquoise water, is a tourist magnet – but few visitors would have seen Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and their squad of kids last Christmas.

The 10-bedroom villa they rented came with a staff of eight servants and the optional extra of a 24-hour security detail – which they were bound to have gone for to ensure their privacy.

“The place is a mammoth two-floor spread,” an insider says. “In addition to all the rooms it has a private gym and a pool surrounded by mini pagodas.”

This Christmas will be a very different story. Wrenched apart by the implosion of Brad and Angelina’s seemingly fairytale romance, the family is unlikely to have another holiday together again.

The scene was set for the way forward at Thanksgiving, the American public holiday that heralds the start of the festive season. For the Jolie-Pitts, it was a rather miserable affair.

Last year Brad spoke of how much he enjoyed “getting my hands dirty in the kitchen” and preparing the traditional dinner. “I’ll get in there, I’ll mess it up a little bit,” he said. “We got Thanksgiving, man, I’m all over that turkey.”

This year he spent the weekend at a resort on Turks and Caicos, an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas. “Brad had a very restful and relaxing stay in the company of an old friend,” an insider told American magazine People.

At one stage it was thought Angelina (41) would invite her estranged husband for the Thanksgiving meal at the rented Malibu mansion where she’s been holing up since the split. But it was not to be.