A family source has hit out at allegations Brad Pitt is an abusive dad.
Pitt is facing a child abuse investgation after reports emerged he had allegedly flown into a drunken rage at teenage son Maddox.
But on Friday a source who has known Pitt and the family for years come out fighting for the actor.
“He is one of the best dads I have ever known,” the source told People.
“He’s very good at keeping things calm and telling them how they should be behaving, reminding them to be kind, to be respectful to each other.
“He has always been there for the kids.”
Pitt is accused of getting “verbally abusive” and “physical” with his oldest child during a flight on the private plane he owns with wife Angelina Jolie.
According to US Weekly the argument was captured on video cameras.
A source who saw the video backed up Pitt’s friend’s comments, saying: ‘Brad is seen yelling a lot during it, but nothing physical.’
On Thursday morning, a police car was seen arriving at the Jolie-Pitt compound in the Hollywood Hills, where Pitt is believed to be staying while Jolie and the children are at a Malibu rental home.
Maddox was adopted by Jolie from Cambodia when he was only a few months old back in 2002 , while she was still married to Billy Bob Thornton.
Jolie and Thornton split just three months later and divorced the following year, with Thornton never legally adopting the boy.
The actress and Pitt then began dating around 2004 and in 2006 Pitt adopted both Maddox and his little sister Zahara.
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt on Monday for ‘the health of her family’, two years after they wed at their French estate.
The actress filed papers citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split and asked for physical custody of the couple’s three biological children as well as their three adopted children.