Given Brad Pitt’s painful divorce from Angelina Jolie and the relentless media attention over his love life, it’s understandable the 58-year-old actor would have been “hesitant” to start dating again.
But Pitt may have found a way to connect romantically with someone and not draw too much attention: by dating a neighbor.
The Sun reported that Pitt was linked to Swedish singer and songwriter Lykke Li, 35, who lives about three minutes away from Pitt in the upscale Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The two have been dating since mid-2021.
A source told The Sun: “Brad and Lykke have been able to fly under the radar so easily because they’re neighbours. It’s worked out perfectly for Brad to have someone he loves living so close.
But a source told People on Thursday that Pitt and Li are “just friends.” They are part of a group of artist friends with whom he likes to spend time. …He also likes having girlfriends.
Pitt has lived in Los Feliz for years in an $8 million estate. Pitt’s ex-wife Angelina Jolie and their six children – Maddox, 20, Pax, 18, Zahara, 17, Shiloh, 15, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 13 – also live nearby . Jolie told British Vogue she bought Cecil B. DeMille’s former home for $25million in 2017 so her children could be close to Pitt, even as the ex-spouses fought a very public battle for childcare.
“I wanted it to be near their dad, who’s only five minutes away,” Jolie said.
Meanwhile, property records show Li is living with her 6-year-old son in a $1.8 million home purchased in 2018 through a trust associated with her producer ex-husband, Jeff Bhasker, The Sun reported.
Rumors of Pitt and Li’s romance first appeared on Twome, the Instagram gossip account, The Sun said. Last week, Deuxmoi quoted “a tipster” as saying that Pitt and “this Swedish singer” were hanging out together at Mother Wolf, a new Roman-style Italian restaurant in Hollywood that opened late last year. and has already become a celebrity hotspot.
A source confirmed to The Sun: “It was Lykke, they were having dinner together.”
Beginning with her debut album “Youth Albums” in 2008, Li has gained an international following for music that combines elements of soul, indie pop, dream pop and electronica. She’s also been a model and dabbled in acting, appearing in Terrence Malick’s 2017 experimental romance drama “Song to Song,” playing Ryan Gosling’s girlfriend.
But if Pitt and Li are just friends, it wouldn’t surprise Pitt to see the media jump on the idea of a romance anyway. In December, an “insider” told Us Weekly that Pitt was worried the tabloids would make headlines every time he was seen in the company of a woman.
“The problem is he hates the process and can’t even go out for a friendly coffee without it being the subject of gossip,” the source said.
As Pitt also noted in his 2020 Golden Globe award acceptance speech, his love life has been the target of endless speculation since his split from Jolie in 2016. After winning his Best Supporting Actor trophy for his role in “Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood,” Pitt joked that he would have brought his mother to the ceremony.
“I want to say hello to my parents, because hey! They’re back in the Ozarks,” the Missouri native explained. “I wanted to bring my mum, but I couldn’t because all the women I was standing next to say I’m dating. It would just be awkward.
Indeed, since his split from Jolie, Pitt’s name has been associated with various women who are likely just friends or passing acquaintances, including Charlize Theron, “Arrested Development” star Alia Shawkat, designer jewelry designer Sat Hari Khalsa and MIT professor Neri Oxman. It was also reported in the summer of 2020 that he had a brief but simple romance with 27-year-old German model Nicole Poturalski. Fans continue to hope that he will get back together with his first wife, Jennifer Aniston.
But another problem for Pitt is that he prefers to focus his time “on his family, his charities and his work. Those are his top priorities,” the source told Us Weekly.
Pitt’s divorce and his custody fight over Jolie undoubtedly took up a lot of his time and emotional energy. The case heated up over the summer. Legal wrangling, involving Pitt’s desire to have 50-50 joint custody of the children, brought the ex-spouses’ fight to the California Supreme Court. But the court denied a motion by Pitt to reconsider the case, so the couple are back to square one.
The source told Us Weekly that Pitt wants to put his past with Jolie behind him before he starts dating again.
“Brad hopes that one day he and Angelina will find a way to forgive each other and move on for the sake of the kids, if nothing else,” the source said. “He hates all bad blood.”
