Given Brad Pitt’s painful divorce from Angelina Jolie and the incessant media focus on his love life, it’s understandable that the 58-year-old actor would reportedly be “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 has been linked to Swedish singer and songwriter Lykke Li, 35, who lives about three minutes away from Pitt in the ritzy 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 neighbors. It’s worked out perfectly for Brad to have someone he likes living so close.”
But a source told People Thursday that Pitt and Li are “just friends.” They are part of a group of artsy friends that he enjoys hanging out with. … He likes having female friends too.”
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 close by. Jolie told British Vogue that she bought Cecil B. DeMille’s former home for $25 million in 2017 so that her children could be close to Pitt, even as the ex-spouses have waged a very public, high-stakes custody battle.
“I wanted it to be close to their dad, who is only five minutes away,” Jolie said.
Meanwhile, property records show that Li lives 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 popped up on Deuxmoi, the Instagram gossip account, The Sun said. Last week, Deuxmoi quoted “a tipster” who said that Pitt and “that 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 hot spot.
A source confirmed to The Sun: “It was Lykke, they were dining together.”
Starting 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 electronic. She also has modeled and dabbled in acting, appearing in Terrence Malick’s 2017 experimental romantic 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 about tabloids making headlines out of any time he’s seen in the company of a woman.
“The trouble is that he hates the process and how he can’t even step out for a friendly coffee without it being gossiped about,” the source said.
As Pitt also noted in his 2020 acceptance speech for his Golden Globe award, his love life has been the target of endless speculation since his 2016 breakup from Jolie. Upon winning his trophy for best supporting actor for his role in “Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood,” Pitt joked that he would have brought his mother to the ceremony.
“I wanna say hi to my folks, because hey! They’re back in the Ozarks,” explained the Missouri native. “I wanted to bring my mom, but I couldn’t because any woman I stand next to, they say I’m dating. It would just be awkward.”
Indeed, since his split from Jolie, Pitt’s name has been linked to various women who are probably nothing more than friends or passing acquaintances, including Charlize Theron, “Arrested Development’ star Alia Shawkat, jewelry designer Sat Hari Khalsa and MIT professor Neri Oxman. There also were reports in the summer of 2020 that he enjoyed a brief but uncomplicated romance with 27-year-old German model Nicole Poturalski. Fans continue to hope he’ll get back together with his first wife, Jennifer Aniston.
But another issue for Pitt is that he prefers to focus his time “on his family, charities and work. Those are his main priorities,” the source told Us Weekly.
Pitt’s divorce and custody fight with Jolie has no doubt occupied much of his time and emotional energy. The case heated up again over the summer. Legal wrangling, involving Pitt’s desire for 50-50 joint custody of the children, took the ex-spouses’ fight to the California Supreme Court. But the court denied a motion from Pitt to review 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 find a way to forgive each other and move forward for the kids’ sakes, if nothing else,” the source said. “He hates all the bad blood.”
