The Rise And Fall Of Brad Pitt And Angelina Jolie's Marriage

It's a strange truism in Hollywood that whenever two superstars hook up, this new uber-couple receives significantly more press coverage than either of those celebs did when they were single. That was certainly the case with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who also brought along the added baggage of their previous high-profile celebrity relationships: Jolie's marriage to Billy Bob Thornton and Pitt's to beloved "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston.

In fact, the couple dubbed "Brangelina" proved to be the gift that kept on giving to the tabloid press, forming the basis for countless headlines that breathlessly chronicled their initial coupling, their engagement, the addition of children (both biological and adopted), and their eventual wedding. As is typically the case, once a celebrity couple ties the knot, drama tends to be manufactured courtesy of anonymous "friends" and "sources close to the couple" who spill dirt about alleged cracks forming in the relationship, hinting at a split on the horizon. 

While those reports often prove to be bogus, when it came to Pitt and Jolie, whispers of trouble in paradise wound up being right on the money; when the couple finally split up, their divorce proved to be among the longest and most bitter Hollywood had ever seen, generating far more headlines than they ever had when they were together. As of September 2024, their ongoing divorce had yet to be finalized, and there's a lot to unpack about how it all came to that point. To learn more, read on for a look at the rise and fall of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's marriage.

Angelina Jolie met Brad Pitt when the two filmed the 2005 espionage-themed rom-com action-thriller "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." At the time, Jolie was coming off her divorce from actor Billy Bob Thornton (the two split in 2002); she was also a single mother, having recently adopted her first child, son Maddox. Pitt, on the other hand, was married to Jennifer Aniston, who was in the midst of transitioning from beloved sitcom sensation to movie star.

While making the film, Pitt and Jolie got to know each other, and their relationship was strictly platonic — initially, at least. "I think we were the last two people who were looking for a relationship," Jolie told Vogue (via the New York Post) in a 2006 interview. "I certainly wasn't. I was quite content to be a single mom." In fact, Jolie admitted she wasn't entirely sure about how fulfilled or unfulfilled he may have been in his relationship with Aniston, but she was adamant about maintaining a respectful attitude toward his marriage. "But it was clear he was with his best friend, someone he loves and respects," she said of the "Friends" star. "And so we were both living, I suppose, very full lives."

As Jolie recalled, they'd become close during the filming, and she looked forward to the time they'd be able to spend together on the set. "And it took until, really, the end of the shoot for us, I think, to realize that it might mean something more than we'd earlier allowed ourselves to believe," she said.

Filming on "Mr. and Mrs. Smith commenced in January 2004, paused in April so Pitt could film "Oceans Twelve," and then resumed in August, concluding a few months later. In December of 2004, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston vacationed in Anguilla; when they returned, they announced that they'd separated. "For those who follow these sorts of things, we would like to explain that our separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by the tabloid media," they said in a joint statement to People, seemingly shutting down rumors that Pitt's relationship with co-star Angelina Jolie had turned romantic while he was still a married man. "This decision is the result of much thoughtful consideration."

A few months later, in March 2005, Aniston officially filed for divorce. The following month, Us Weekly reported that Jolie and Pitt were vacationing together in Kenya. They were subsequently spotted together in London and then Ethiopia.

By the time Pitt's divorce from Aniston was finalized in October, it was widely assumed that he and Jolie were a couple, although neither had publicly acknowledged that they were an item. 

Having already adopted son Maddox, in the summer of 2005, Angelina Jolie traveled to Ethiopia to adopt her second child, daughter Zahara, just seven months old when the adoption took place. When she and co-star Brad Pitt journeyed to Tokyo to promote "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" in November 2005, Pitt was photographed carrying the infant when they arrived at the airport. As Jolie explained in a 2023 interview with Vogue, motherhood was not only something she'd come to embrace, but it was also something that she chased from a young age. "I was 26 when I became a mother," she said. "My entire life changed. Having children saved me — and taught me to be in this world differently." 

Of course, when she adopted her second child, her situation was markedly different than when she'd adopted her first; this time, she was in a relationship with Pitt, one that was being widely reported but had not been publicly acknowledged by either star. 

Then again, assumptions could certainly be made when, in December 2005, Brad Pitt formally adopted both Maddox and Zahara, with each child taking on the surname Jolie-Pitt.

The underlying reason behind Brad Pitt adopting Angelina Jolie's two children became clear in January 2006, when the mother of two announced that she was about to become a mother of three. "Yes, I'm pregnant," Jolie told a charity aid worker in the Dominican Republic, reported People. While Jolie didn't share the identity of the father, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that it could be anyone other than Pitt.

Just a few months later, in May 2006, the couple welcomed their first biological child, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. "Angie and baby are fantastic," a source told People. "Brad was at her side during the birth."

Given that the two were now parents of three children, there was much speculation that a wedding would take place in the near future. However, Pitt slammed the brakes on that notion, revealing that they wouldn't be walking down the aisle until everyone in America, regardless of sexual orientation, had the right to do so as well. "Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able," Pitt said in a 2006 interview with Esquire. "It's one of our last big issues of equality," Pitt later said of same-sex marriage during a subsequent interview with HLN. "I mean, what makes this nation great is our freedoms."

By the end of 2006, there was no doubt whatsoever that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were a couple. However, speculation remained rife about the origin story of their romance, with one key question in mind: did Pitt cheat on then-wife Jennifer Aniston? Or had that relationship ended by the time that he took up with Jolie?

While that question may never be sufficiently answered for the nosiest tabloid readers, Jolie did address the early stages of their romance in a candid interview with Vogue, published in December 2006. As she explained, the two became fast friends, partners in the film they were shooting together. "Whether it was shooting a scene or arguing about a scene or gun practice or dance class or doing stunts — anything we had to do with each other, we just found a lot of joy in it together and a lot of real teamwork," Jolie told the magazine, as reported by the New York Post. "We just became kind of a pair."

It wasn't until production of the film neared that they both began to acknowledge the attraction for each other that was simmering under the surface. "And both knowing that the reality of that was a big thing, something that was going to take a lot of serious consideration," she said, insisting they remained simply friends — and had resigned herself to remaining so — until Pitt and Aniston announced their separation. "And then life developed in a way where we could be together, where it felt like something we would do, we should do," she explained.

In March 2007, Angelina Jolie embraced motherhood once again when she adopted her son Pax Thien, who took her surname Jolie. Eyebrows were undoubtedly raised by the fact that she adopted three-year-old Pax as a single parent, without partner Brad Pitt, from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

There was, however, a very logical reason for that: at the time, Vietnam's regulations surrounding adoption didn't permit unmarried couples to adopt children, forcing her to undertake the process solo.

Just over a year later, in July 2008, the still-unmarried couple welcomed two more biological children, fraternal twins: son Knox and daughter Vivienne. The kids were born in Nice, in the South of France, and Jolie's obstetrician told People that the twins were delivered via cesarean section. "The babies are doing well," said Dr. Michel Sussmann, who delivered the babies. "The operation went just perfectly. Angelina is in very good spirits. Brad Pitt was at her side. He was there and all was well."

Fairly early in their relationship, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie vacationed at Château Miraval, a luxurious estate in the south of France that also encompasses an extensive vineyard and wine-making facility. In 2008, they purchased a controlling interest in the property and had ultimately paid $60 million by the time they attained full ownership in 2012.

Sitting on 1,200 acres of land, the property boasts an array of unique features, ranging from olive groves to a private lake to a moat. In addition to Château Miraval's ancient history (several structures dating from the 17th century are found on the property), the home has also been used as a recording studio (installed by previous owner Jacques Loussier, a jazz pianist); among the acts to have recorded there are Sting, Muse, AC/DC and Pink Floyd, who recorded parts of the double album "The Wall" there.

Pitt, whose interest in architecture has been well documented, made multiple changes to the 35-room main house, including such modernizations as a gym, a video game room for their kids, a screening room, and even a helicopter landing pad. The couple also launched their own wine business; when the first 6,000 bottles of wine from their Château Miraval label were released, it took just five hours to sell out. When Pitt and Jolie divorced, Château Miraval — both the property itself and the wine business — became the focus of the financial spat the press dubbed "war of the rosé."

After years of unmarried togetherness, in 2012, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt finally announced that they'd gotten engaged. "Yes, it's confirmed," Cynthia Pett-Dante, Pitt's manager, told People. "It is a promise for the future and their kids are very happy." According to Pett-Dante, the couple had yet to set a date for their eventual wedding.

That date finally arrived two years later, with the couple exchanging vows at Château Miraval, within a small Romanesque chapel situated on the property. In a statement to Reuters through the couple's publicist, Martin Torres, he revealed that all six of their children were involved in the ceremony, with Maddox and Pax walking their mother down the aisle, as Zahara and Vivienne threw flower petals that had been gathered from a garden on the property, while Shiloh and Knox served as ring bearers. "It was very much a family affair," Torres said in his statement.

Later, Pitt was asked how their children felt about their parents finally tying the knot. "They like it," he told People. 

In 2007, Angelina Jolie lost her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to breast cancer. Years later, after medical tests revealed that she'd inherited a genetic predisposition for the disease from her mother, Jolie decided to take the proactive step of undergoing a double mastectomy.

Jolie shared the news in a 2013 op-ed she wrote for The New York Times, which she'd titled "My Medical Choice." "I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy," she wrote. "But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87% to under 5%. I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."

She also revealed that Pitt, who'd become her fiancé the previous year, had been a part of the process from beginning to end. "I am fortunate to have a partner, Brad Pitt, who is so loving and supportive," she wrote of Pitt, revealing that he'd been with her during surgery. Ultimately, she added, the decision was one that she made not just for herself but also for Pitt and their children. "We knew this was the right thing to do for our family and that it would bring us closer," she wrote. "And it has."

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie capped off their wedding by honeymooning in Malta. Their honeymoon, however, was considerably out of the ordinary in that they decided to spend their time not relaxing and reveling in their new status as spouses but instead filming a movie. That small indie film, "By the Sea," was written and directed by Jolie and featured the two newlyweds playing a married couple whose relationship was disintegrating — a fraught storyline that, just two short years later, would prove to be eerily prophetic.

"I wrote something a few years ago for Brad and me. Just for fun. Just an independent little art piece," Jolie teased in a 2014 interview with People. "Because we don't get to do those as much as we'd like. But it's something really small and experimental."

Discussing what it was like to act with and be directed by his wife, Pitt described a process that was somewhat seamless. "There's no dividing line when the camera's rolling or when it's not. We're having the same conversation when we're making breakfast, when we're setting the shot, when we're in the scene or out of the scene," he told Entertainment Tonight. As Pitt explained, the characters they portrayed in the film were "in that stage in life that the old fairytale books don't explain — when the romance has dulled, the banality of the everyday has become the constant."

"By the Sea" was released in November 2015, receiving dismal reviews and flopping at the box office, bringing in just $3.3 million worldwide, despite costing $10 million to make.

Less than a year later, Angelina Jolie stunned the public when she announced that she'd filed for divorce after less than two years of marriage. "Angelina Jolie Pitt has filed for dissolution of the marriage. This decision was made for the health of the family," Jolie's attorney said in a statement to People. Pitt also gave the outlet a statement, reading, "I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the well being of our kids. I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time." An anonymous friend of the couple expressed surprise over the marriage's abrupt end. "The divorce is a complete shock," the source declared.

Several years later, Jolie hinted that the dissolution of the marriage had actually started long before they even exchanged vows. "It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children," she told The Guardian in 2021. "I mean, in some ways, it's been the last decade. There's a lot I can't say."

While Angelina Jolie may have hinted at longstanding difficulties in her relationship with Brad Pitt, there was one key incident that proved to be the final straw that caused everything to collapse in ruin. It all came to light in a post-divorce court filing, in which Jolie alleged that Pitt became physically violent toward her and their children during a flight.  

As The Associated Press reported in 2022, Jolie alleged that during a 2016 flight on a private jet, they engaged in an argument after Pitt accused Jolie of being too "deferential" to their children. "He pulled her into the bathroom and began yelling at her. Pitt grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her, and then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall," the legal filing read. When one of their children attempted to come to Jolie's defense, Pitt allegedly lunged at the child, with Jolie grabbing him from behind in an attempt to prevent a physical altercation. "To get Jolie off his back, Pitt threw himself backwards into the airplane's seats injuring Jolie's back and elbow," the filing stated. "The children rushed in and all bravely tried to protect each other. Before it was over, Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face."

Perhaps tellingly, in 2024, the couple's third-eldest child, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, legally changed her name, dropping her father's surname to become Shiloh Nouvel Jolie.