Who Are Billy Bob Thornton's 4 Kids?

In Taylor Sheridan's smash hit "Landman," Billy Bob Thornton plays Tommy Norris, an oil executive and father of two who has his hands full trying to keep up with his sexy, sassy ex and their two sweet but slightly helpless kids. Playing the part wasn't a stretch for the "Sling Blade" star who, in real life, is a father of four children (two sons and two daughters), from three of his six wives. As the offspring of an A-list Hollywood celebrity, Thornton's kids have seen a side of life that's a long way away from rural Arkansas where their famous father was raised without some of life's most basic necessities. "I remember when we were really little, we didn't have running water or electricity," Thornton shared in an interview with Venice Magazine (via The Hollywood Interview).

They also didn't have a lot of warm, fuzzy, family moments. The oldest of three boys, Thornton's relationship with his father, a high-school basketball coach, was, by his own accounts, not the stuff Hallmark cards are written about. "My dad and I were never close and he died when I was 18, of cancer," he said, and cited their dynamic as inspiration for many of the roles he has chosen. But more than just his work, Thornton's relationship with his late father influenced how he has tried to parent his own children. "I tell them I love them when they walk into the room — it's ridiculous," he told Interview Magazine. "I went exactly the opposite [way] from my dad."

Billy Bob Thornton may have consciously tried to avoid becoming his father, but that doesn't mean that he didn't make mistakes with his own kids. One of the more tragic details about Billy Bob Thornton's family life is his relationship (or lack thereof) with his oldest child, daughter Amanda Brumfield. Brumfield is the only child that Thornton shares with his first wife, Melissa Lee Gatlin, and was born long before her father would become a household name. 

When Gatlin and Thornton called it quits after just two years, Brumfield lived with her mother and, according to her accounts, Thornton became the typical absentee father. Although she was too young to remember her parents being married, Brumfield has expressed her hurt over their divorce and the lack of fatherly support. "He's pretty much made me feel like I've been shut out," Brumfield once told Inside Edition (via People). "I mean, I have nothing against him. I love him. He's my father. I just want him to be around. I don't want to cry, but it's not fair to watch him on TV every day, and I can't even get a call." Rather than try and defend himself, Thornton has owned up to his actions. "She didn't grow up with me, and so we were pretty much strangers for years," Thornton once told the U.K.'s Mail on Sunday (via People). "Then a few years later, we reconnected, and it's really good now."

They may have been reconnected, but Billy Bob Thornton's relationship with his oldest daughter Amanda Brumfield went off track again when she was arrested and convicted in the death of her 1-year-old goddaughter. While in Brumfield's care, the child, Olivia Madison Garcia, allegedly fell out of her playpen and later died due to her injuries, which included a fractured skull. Brumfield, who claimed that she didn't realize the baby was seriously injured right away, waited more than two hours to alert the authorities. A jury found Thornton's eldest child guilty of aggravated manslaughter and she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Throughout the proceedings, Thornton was nowhere to be found. Instead, the "Bad Santa" actor's publicist, Arnold Robinson, issued a statement to CNN (per ABC News) that claimed Thornton was once again estranged from Brumfield, and expressed his sympathy to Garcia's family. "When informed about this situation, he [Thornton] commented that, 'Anytime a baby's life is lost is an unimaginable tragedy and my heart goes out to the baby's family and loved ones,'" Robinson said. While Thornton may not have spoken up for his daughter, Brumfield's mother, Melissa Parish, did — and she threw a little shade at Thornton in the process. "She was Olivia's godmother and the mother's best friend," she told the New York Post. "It's just a horrible situation and it's being made worse and exploding even more just because of who my ex-husband is."

After serving almost nine years in a Florida state prison for the death of 1-year-old Olivia Madison Garcia, Billy Bob Thornton's oldest daughter, Amanda Brumfield, was released thanks to the efforts of the nonprofit Innocence Project of Florida who took up her cause. According to a Facebook post from the organization (per The Ledger), Brumfield, who has always maintained her innocence and claimed that the child's death was an accident, had filed a motion for a new trial and was scheduled for a hearing when she accepted the state prosecutor's offer of early release if she would agree to stop "pressing her innocence in court." "Given that even if we overturned her conviction she could face up to an additional 20 years in prison if wrongfully convicted again, she chose her freedom and rebuilding her life over that other uncertain future," read the post, which called it "a deal any reasonable person would take."

Today, Brumfield is enjoying her freedom as well as the simple things in life that others might take for granted. "I can just walk outside if I want to, you know," she said in an Innocence Project of Florida Facebook Live video. "It's just an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and appreciation of just being able to be and to live and to do your best to contribute back and be a positive influence." It is unclear whether or not rebuilding her life includes rebuilding a relationship with Thornton, but time will tell. 

William Thornton is the eldest son of Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton, and one of two children he shares with his fourth wife, former Playboy model, Pietra Dawn Cherniak. The marriage didn't last, but by all appearances, Billy Bob was able to maintain a seemingly good relationship with his namesake son. The two have even been spotted together on a few red carpets over the years, including at the premieres of "Bad Santa 2" and "Whisky Tango Foxtrot" to name a few. Other than that, however, William seems to eschew the limelight and leads a private life. He makes the occasional appearance on his younger brother's Instagram feed, but doesn't seem to have a public account of his own. 

Billy Bob's split from William's mom wasn't pretty. The actor had just won an Oscar for "Sling Blade," when Cherniak filed for divorce, and claimed that the actor had been abusive. She gained sole custody of the couple's children, even though Billy Bob denied the allegations and issued a statement (via People) that said, "Our marriage was not perfect, but I never exhibited the behavior she's accusing me of." In interviews, Billy Bob has been open about the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his own father, but has also been very vocal about not repeating the pattern. "I broke the cycle," he told Deadline. "My kids are embarrassed at how affectionate I am."

Unlike his older brother William Thornton, Harry James Thornton took a page straight out of his dad's playbook and decided to pursue a career in Hollywood. Rather than get into movies, however, the youngest son of Billy Bob Thornton and Pietra Dawn Cherniak took the reality route to fame. He appeared alongside other children of the stars on the show "Relatively Famous: Ranch Rules" that aired on E! Before he made his television debut, his famous father gave Harry James some words of wisdom. "My dad told me, 'You're going to be on TV, so be careful and don't do anything too embarrassing,'" Harry James recalled to Page Six. "But he told me to also have fun and let me know that he was really excited for me." 

Bitten by the industry bug, Harry James spent the next few years working behind the scenes including a stint as an assistant prop master on his dad's award-winning series "Goliath." A love of film and television isn't the only thing Harry James and his pop have in common. They both share a love of music as is evidenced by a photo on Harry James' Instagram feed featuring his dad teaching him a song on the guitar. What some people don't know about Billy Bob is that he originally went to Los Angeles to get into the music industry before he backed into acting. "I always wanted to be a rock star. I didn't know I was going to be an actor," he told Deadline. Billy Bob and Harry James are also both fathers of two daughters. Harry James shares daughters Mia and Nikita with longtime love Magi Monet, and enjoys a successful career in real estate.

Despite a significant age difference between Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie, the two stars apparently fell madly in love and tied the knot, making Jolie the stepmother to three of Thornton's children. She left a particularly lasting impression on Billy Bob's youngest son, Harry James Thornton, though, who has nothing but praise for his dad's fifth wife, whom he once described to Entertainment Tonight as "So cool." "She's very family-oriented and children-oriented," Harry James told Page Six, as he recalled family "glamping trips" in an RV. "So, when I was younger, it was awesome growing up with someone like her because she loves kids. And then now I can appreciate all the stuff she did for us when we were younger." 

Apparently, the feeling of adoration was mutual and lasted long after Jolie and Billy Bob divorced. Even with her own brood of six children, Harry James said that the "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" star still remembers him at the holidays. "To this day, she still sends me Christmas gifts every year and stuff like that," Harry James told ET. "I don't talk to her on the phone every day but every now and then we talk." Apparently, Jolie's split from Billy Bob was amicable, which may account for the bond she shares with his youngest son. "She and I are still very, very close friends," Billy Bob told Rolling Stone. "We simply split up because our lifestyles were so different."

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but Harry James Thornton may not have seen it that way when he called out Machine Gun Kelly for wearing a vial of his then-girlfriend Megan Fox's blood around his neck. Why did Harry James care? Because his famous father Billy Bob Thornton did it first. Anyone who remembers the headline-making behaviors of the "Landman" star and his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, might recall that wearing each other's blood around their necks was one of the many "out there" things they were famous for doing. "Ah, they're copycats," Harry James told Page Six of Kelly and Fox.

Billy Bob and Jolie's relationship was steamy from the start. It allegedly began while Billy Bob Thornton was in a relationship with blond beauty Laura Dern, leading to a messy affair drama that has haunted him for decades. While it's true that Thornton and Jolie once got tattoos for each other, and yes, Thornton admitted to wearing Jolie's underwear on occasion, the whole "vials of blood" thing wasn't exactly true. "We each had a little locket, literally with a drop of blood in them," Billy Bob told Rolling Stone. "That's a romantic little idea, and that's all that was. But by the time it's over, we're vampires." Harry James has admitted that he thought the necklace was "gross," but that his dad was ahead of his time. "He's set trends," Harry James told Page Six. "I think that's awesome. I can appreciate that."

The youngest of the Thornton kids, Bella Thornton is the only child shared by Billy Bob Thornton and his sixth wife, Connie Angland. The actor has been honest about his protectiveness over his daughter because he knows she shares more than just his DNA. Over the years, details about Billy Bob Thornton's health struggles have emerged and include diagnoses like OCD, dyslexia, anxiety, and autistic tendencies. As the actor admitted on Ann Wilson's podcast, "After Dinner Thinks," he's passed many of these challenges down to Bella. "So my daughter has all that, anxiety, and OCD," he shared. "She's not dyslexic — that's the only one she didn't get." 

Helping his daughter understand these issues and how to navigate them is something the actor said they discuss at length. "[We talk] about how these things that are looked at by the public as detriments," he said. "But they're actually strengths, especially in the arts. Because if you check through history, you can't tell me that Van Gogh and those guys weren't on the spectrum. But I haven't cut off any body parts yet!" Thornton has blamed the regular abuse he experienced at the hands of his father for contributing to his OCD behaviors, but that isn't the case with Bella. By all accounts, Billy Bob has been a doting, loving, somewhat overprotective father to his youngest. His openness to discuss his own mental health issues and remove any stigmas for his daughter only supports his commitment to being the best dad he can be. 

Like her oldest brother William Thornton, Bella Thornton has stayed largely out of the spotlight, making the occasional public appearances with her proud papa, who has admitted to being wrapped around her finger. "Last Halloween she went as a monarch butterfly and I went as a ladybug," he shared with People when Bella was just 9 years old. "That doesn't really look like me, but I did it. I strapped on the wings and everything."

As Bella got older and began to spread her own wings, Billy Bob used his relationship with his adult daughter as inspiration for his on-screen relationship with his "Landman" daughter Aynsley, played by Michelle Randolph. At a Nashville screening of the show in 2024, Billy Bob shared that playing a protective "girl dad" wasn't a stretch. "I have a daughter who just turned 20 and just started Cal Poly out in San Luis-Obispo," Billy Bob explained (via People). "I'm very protective and it was not hard for me and Michelle Randolph to be protective of her." In fact, the self-described "helicopter parent" admitted on the "Today" show (per People) that he bought a house just 12 minutes from the Cal Poly campus so that he and his wife could be closer to their daughter.