Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were one of Hollywood’s biggest “it” couples for years.
After meeting on a film set while Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston, they spent more than 10 years as “Brangelina”.
Now, the pair have reached a settlement after one of the longest and most bitter divorces in Hollywood history.
Image: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in 2007. Pic: MediaPunch/IPX/AP
Here’s how their rollercoaster relationship unfolded.
Mr And Mrs Smith
Image: Pitt and Jolie on the set of Mr And Mrs Smith. Pic: Moviestore/Shutterstock
In 2003, Pitt and Jolie began filming Mr And Mrs Smith, playing the part of a married couple who are competing assassins.
It wasn’t love at first sight, according to Jolie.
She told Vogue in 2007 that she and Pitt were “the last two people who were looking for a relationship” but after spending months filming “we found this strange friendship and partnership”.
“A few months in, I realised, ‘God, I can’t wait to get to work’,” she told the magazine.
Despite this, the pair remained just “very, very good friends” until after Pitt and Aniston announced their separation in January 2005, according to Jolie.
Pitt and Aniston split
Image: Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston on the red carpet in 2004. File pic: Reuters
Pitt and Aniston announced their separation on 7 January 2005.
“After seven years together we have decided to formally separate,” they said in a joint statement to People magazine at the time.
“Our separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by the tabloid media,” they added.
‘Brangelina’ becomes official
Image: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with their children on a trip to Mumbai in 2006. Pic: Reuters
Later that year, Jolie travelled to Ethiopia to adopt her second child, Zahara.
She had already adopted her son, Maddox, in 2002, who she credited with moving her relationship with Pitt along.
Image: Jolie and Pitt together in 2007. Pic: AP
“[Maddox] just out of the blue called him dad,” Jolie told Vogue in 2007.
“It was amazing. We were playing with cars on the floor of a hotel room, and we both heard it and didn’t say anything and just looked at each other.”
Image: Angelina Jolie carries her daughter Zahara in November, 2006. Pic: AP
She travelled to Ethiopia to meet Zahara with Maddox – and her new partner Pitt.
In January 2007, the two children’s surnames were changed to Jolie-Pitt, and Pitt became their adopted father.
Shiloh, the couple’s first biological child, was born in May 2006 in a hospital in Namibia, with three-year-old son Pax getting adopted from Vietnam in 2007.
Asked whether wedding bells were on the horizon, however, Pitt told Esquire magazine he and Jolie would only marry when every couple had the legal right to do the same, referring to LGBT+ couples.
“Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able,” he said.
Chateau Miraval, France
Image: An aerial view of the 17th-century Chateau Miraval, bought by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, in 2012. Pic: Reuters
While expecting twins in 2008, Pitt and Jolie signed a three-year lease on Chateau Miraval, a huge 800-acre estate in the south of France.
The property came with a private vineyard, olive groves, a lake, a moat, fountains and a forest.
Image: Jolie and Pitt arrive for the screening of Kung Fu Panda at Cannes in 2008. Pic: Reuters
Jolie told reporters she was considering giving birth to her twins in France, which proved to be true, with Knox and Vivienne being born later that year in Nice.
“It is chaos, but we are managing it and having a wonderful time,” Jolie told People magazine that month.
In 2012, the couple bought the property and launched their wine business, Miraval Wines.
Wedding bells
Image: Jolie arrives at the Oscars in 2012. Pic: Reuters
That year, in 2012, the couple got engaged.
In an interview with CBS News, Pitt said their kids were putting pressure on them to get married.
“It means something to them and […] they have questions when their friends’ parents are married,” Pitt said.
Jolie’s preventative double mastectomy
Image: Jolie and Pitt in 2014. Pic: Reuters
In 2013, Jolie elected to have a double mastectomy, where both breasts are removed, after she was found to carry the BRCA1 gene – with doctors telling the actress she had an 87% chance of getting breast cancer.
Marcheline Bertrand, Jolie’s mother and a fellow actor, died from breast cancer in 2007.
“We knew this was the right thing to do for our family and that it would bring us closer. And it has,” she wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times.
Two years later, she had an operation to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes, after tests detected the possible early stages of ovarian cancer.
Tying the knot
Image: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie pose on the red carpet in 2015. Pic: Reuters
Brad and Angelina tied the knot in 2014, a year before same-sex couples were legally able to marry in the USA.
The intimate ceremony took place at Chateau Miraval and had just 20 guests.
The cake was made by their son, Pax, and Jolie’s dress was decorated by the children.
“It was important to us that the day was relaxed and full of laughter,” the couple told People magazine.
Image: Pitt and Jolie in the film By The Sea. Pic: Universal/Everett/Shutterstock
During their honeymoon, the couple filmed By The Sea, a drama written and directed by Jolie.
Jolie files for divorce
Image: Jolie and Pitt at the premiere of By The Sea in 2015. Pic: Reuters
Just two years later, in 2016, Jolie filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split.
She requested sole custody of their six children but no child or spousal support.
“This decision was made for the health of the family,” her lawyer said at the time.
It wasn’t until 2019 that a judge ruled the pair were legally single, although he also ruled they’d need to settle their custody and financial disputes separately.
Since then, they’ve been embroiled in legal battles over their children and finances.
Image: Brad Pitt filming for a Formula One movie during the British Grand Prix 2023 at Silverstone. Pic: PA
Image: Angelina Jolie at a screening of her latest film Maria on Maria Callas. Pic: Reuters
In November 2016, the FBI and Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) closed an investigation into allegations of physical abuse involving Pitt and his children that stemmed from an incident in September 2016 aboard a private plane carrying Pitt, Jolie and their children.
A source close to Pitt at the time said: “He is emphatic that it did not reach the level of physical abuse, that no one was physically harmed. He did not hit his child in the face in any way.
“He did not do that; he is emphatic about that. He put his hands on him, yes, because the confrontation was spiralling out of control.”
Image: Angelina Jolie with her children Knox, Zahara, Vivienne and Shiloh in 2019. Pic: Reuters
In 2019, a private judge hired by Pitt found they should share equal custody of their children.
But Jolie filed to have the judge removed from the case over an unreported conflict of interest.
An appeals court agreed, the judge was removed, and the couple had to start over in 2021.
Settlement reached at last
Image: Angelina Jolie and son Knox in November 2024. Pic: Reuters
Now, the pair have reached a settlement after eight years in one of the longest and most bitter divorces in Hollywood history.
“Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over,” said Jolie’s lawyer.
A separate lawsuit filed by Pitt alleged Jolie went back on an agreement that she would sell him her half of the Chateau Miraval winery the two owned together.
It is not clear how the new divorce agreement will affect that lawsuit.
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