Pics: Brad Pitt looks skeletal and gaunt as Angelina Jolie divorce 'takes a tol...

In the middle of a bitter custody battle with Angelina Jolie over their six children, Brad Pitt was spotted in Los Angeles looking skeletal and thinner than he has in years on Thursday.

The actor, 53, was seen stepping out of an art studio where the Daily Mail reports he has been spending over 15 hours a day, working with his friend and collaborator Thomas Houseago on a sculpture.

He sported a short new haircut and was dressed in a black bomber jacket, white T-shirt, blue jeans and suede Chelsea Boots, looking like “a shadow of his former self,” said the Mail report, which also speculated that the legal battle following the separation had “taken a toll” on him.

Pitt has been notably absent from the public eye since his separation from Jolie in September 2016. He skipped the Hollywood awards season and most of the publicity tour for his new film Allied. Pitt has another film coming up, May’s War Machine.

It was reported last week that Pitt secretly accompanied Jolie on her trip to Cambodia to spend more time with his kids.