Why Brad Pitt Would Keep Any New Romance Fiercely Private After His Divorce From Angelina Jolie

Pending some great love affair, a rumor that he's dating Sienna Miller will remain exactly that

By Natalie Finn Jun 28, 2017 6:39 PMTags

Sienna who?

That's going to be the name of the game for Brad Pitt, newly single after close to two decades of slightly overlapping monogamy and—so the photographers hope—ready to mingle amid his divorce from Angelina Jolie.

And by all accounts, Pitt is readyish to mingle. Back in April he was reportedly "dating a bit." A source told E! News that he wasn't dating just yet but was going "out with friends."

Also in April, an insider denied that Pitt was engaging in some "serious flirting" with Sienna Miller during a group dinner following the Hollywood premiere of her latest movie, The Lost Season of Z, which counts Pitt's Plan B Entertainment as a producer. (For the record, rumors that he was inordinately chatting up ex-wife Jennifer Aniston were also shot down, as they hadn't—contrary to what people wanted to believe—completely iced each other out of their lives prior to Pitt's split last year.)

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Brad Pitt's Romance History

"I'm not going to even dignify it with a response. It's predictable and silly," Miller herself told Page Six at the time. "Predictable," indeed, what with the two of them being technically single and anywhere near each other. Never mind that Pitt just went through one of the toughest years of his life, which included riding a wave of salacious press, quitting drinking, repairing his relationship with his children and getting back on speaking terms with Jolie.

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And even since April, Pitt has been through a lot. His close friend and Plan B co-founder Brad Grey passed away unexpectedly from cancer on May 14 (though Pitt was among the tiny inner circle that knew the former Paramount chief was ill), and then longtime friend Chris Cornell committed suicide just four days later.  

The actor even joined Cornell's two kids at Universal Studios last month, where 11-year-old Christopher was excited to pick out a wand from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Meanwhile, as he's been doing for the past nine months, Pitt's been working on co-parenting his six kids with Jolie—and the change in circumstances from the ugly early days right after the split when Maddox Jolie-Pitt didn't even want to see his dad to now, with Jolie ultimately purchasing a new home not far from the family's old abode to allow for more contact between Pitt and the kids, is like night and day.

But give a guy a chance to get his land legs back after falling overboard!

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Brad Pitt's Best Roles

Instead, despite the fact that he's been incredibly busy with the crap shoot that is life, things have supposedly progressed with Sienna Miller, and now—after they were spotted supposedly looking cozy at the Glastonbury Festival in England—they're reportedly dating. Secretly. "Determined" to keep their "carefree, casual summer romance" under wraps, according to The Sun

Under wraps from whom? Elle Macpherson, who he was linked to last week by Australian tabloid New Idea?

As it turns out, it's all bollocks. Miller's good friend and sometimes co-star Bradley Cooper was also among the revelers at Glastonbury and all was platonic.

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Sienna Miller's Street Style

"Fun story but it's all nonsense," a Miller pal tells E! News. "They're just friends. Definitely no summer fling going on here!"

Xposure / AKM-GSI

The British actress and Pitt do have co-parenting in common—Miller and ex Tom Sturridge have a daughter, 4 1/2-year-old Marlowe, together and they've done their best to remain close. Miller called Sturridge her "best friend in the entire world" in an interview with Harper's Bazaar UK earlier this year. 

But no matter what happens between her and Pitt—he and Jolie were once just "very, very good friends" for a hot second, after all—don't ever expect a flood of willfully given information.

Because in what world would Pitt choose to subject himself—or a potential partner—to that sort of scrutiny (knowing full well it's going to happen anyway, so why help)? And if he'd prefer a secret romance, then Miller—no stranger to tabloid headlines herself—could be quite the co-conspirator.

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Secret Star Weddings and Elopements

Talking about the break she took from Hollywood in the wake of high-profile romances with Jude Law, Rhys Ifans and Balthazar Getty, she told Esquire UK in 2014, "I felt like I had no control over any aspect of my life, professionally or personally. So I deliberately disappeared. I was sick of myself, to be honest, or sick of that perception of me."

And being a mother, she'd be 100 times less inclined to enter into a splashy public romance.

Moreover, never mind that in dating years, Pitt is barely at the walking stage again. Some stars find themselves perennially attached, barely letting the door close or the ink dry before they've moved on to the next relationship. But as a 53-year-old father of six, it would be far more understandable if Pitt wanted to pace himself a bit—particularly since he knows what's waiting on the other side once he walks through that door.

Talking about sculpting, but admitting to the built-in metaphor about where he's at in life, Pitt said during his sprawling interview with GQ Style this spring, "I've got to start from the bottom, I've got to sweep my floor, I've got to wrap up my s--t at night, you know?"

"Right now I've got to hammer my own nails.'