Once the most loved-up couple in Hollywood, borne like a phoenix from the ashes of Brad and Jennifer Anistonâs world-rocking break up, Brangelina has taken quite the tumble.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announced their split in 2016, just two years after they tied the knot in Miraval, south east France, where they also co-owned a successful vineyard. Since then, thereâs been allegations of abuse, claims of forced NDAs, a revolving door of legal professionals and more than a little crying over spilt rosé.
In some of the latest court filings around the ongoing legal battle dubbed âWar of the Rosésâ Jolieâs lawyers allege that Pitt was abusive toward her prior to the 2016 plane incident that led to her leaving him and filing for divorce. Pitt has denied allegations of abuse and no charges were filed after an FBI investigation.
It has also recently emerged that two of the coupleâs children, Shiloh and Vivienne, have dropped Pittâs name from their surnames. In court documents obtained by TMZ this week it was discovered that Shiloh requested to legally change her name from Shiloh Jolie-Pitt to Shiloh Jolie on the day of her 18th birthday, 27 May.
Elsewhere, in the playbill for Vivienneâs new Broadway musical, The Outsiders, produced by Angelina Jolie, the teenage âproduction assistantâ is listed as Vivienne Jolie instead of Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, according to People magazine.
Vivienne Jolie-Pitt appears to drop âPittâ from her surname for The Outsiders playbill
REUTERS
From the couple that couldnât keep their hands off each other to embittered exes, where did it all go so wrong for Brad and Ange?
First, letâs go way back. The two actors first met on the set of action comedy Mr & Mrs Smith in 2004. Chemistry between the pair â playing a married couple who both turned out to be assassins hired to kill the other â was said to be palpable. At the time, Brad was married to Jennifer Aniston, making him one half of the most adored celebrity couple. Brad and Jenâs Malibu wedding in 2000 was no small affair (if youâll pardon the phrasing), it reportedly cost $1 million and was attended by the entire cast of Friends, including David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry, and Matt LeBlanc. He was the biggest movie star in the world and she was the Rachel Green. People from all across the world were obsessed and ate up every available inside detail on the pairâs relationship. Like, for instance, their wedding vows: he promised to split the thermostat bill and Jen pledged to always make Brad his favourite banana milkshake.
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston in May 2004
Getty Images
Their approach to marriage was charmingly liberal. âNeither of us wants to be the spokesman for a happy marriage, for coupledom,â Brad told Vanity Fair. âIâll tell you what I despise: this two-becomes-one thing where you lose your individuality. We donât cage each other with this pressure of happily ever after. You figure it out as you go along. We feel it out, rather than setting policies and rules.â
Adding: âJen and I always made a pact; that weâll see where this thing is going. Iâm not sure it really is in our nature to be with someone for the rest of our lives, just because you made this pact. You keep going as long as you keep growing. When that dies, we do. We still have that friendship; we still have a good laugh, which can go in and out depending on the dynamics and outside influences. Itâs complicated, but thatâs what keeps it interesting.â
Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton in June 2000
Getty Images
Enter Angelina, who came with a wild image (kissing her brother on the lips at the Oscars, reportedly wearing a vial of her partnerâs blood around her neck, etc) and described herself as having had a âdark and dangerousâ youth. She was twice divorced when she met Brad â having been hitched first to British actor Jonny Lee Miller, of Trainspotting fame, and then Billy Bob Thornton, aka Bad Santa and the sleazy American President from Love Actually. During her marriage to Billy Bob, the couple adopted a child, Maddox, from Cambodia in March 2002, but abruptly separated three months later.
Speaking about her divorce, she told Vogue at the time: âIt took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it’s scary but… I think it can happen when you get involved and you don’t know yourself yet.”
After seven years together, and mid-way through the filming of Mr & Mrs Smith, Brad and Jennifer announced their separation on January 7, 2005. A tidal wave speculation was unleashed. Both the media and the general public whipped up a frenzied Team Jen and Team Angelina rivalry, with brands even selling t-shirts for people wanting to pledge their allegiance.
Angelina was pitched as the mistress, but both have always strenuously denied their relationship started as an affair. “To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive,â Angelina said. âI could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn’t be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife.”
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with studio executives at the premiere of Mr & Mrs Smith in June 2005
Getty Images
Not long after their divorce, Jen gave a candid interview to Vanity Fair, saying âIâm not interested in taking public potshots. Itâs not my concern anymore. What happened to him after the separationâitâs his life now. Iâve made a conscious effort not to add to the toxicity of this situation. I havenât retaliated. I donât want to be a part of it. I donât have a halo that Iâm polishing here; everyone has their personal thoughts. But I would much rather everyone move on. I am not defined by this relationship. I am not defined by the part theyâre making me play in the triangle. Itâs maddening to me…â
âRainbowâ family
In January 2006, Angelina confirmed to People that she was pregnant with the coupleâs first child. It was the first time sheâd publicly acknowledged their relationship. The pair then started assembling their ârainbowâ family, as she called it, at pace. That year, Brad became the adoptive father of Maddox and Angelinaâs second child, Zahara. Both of the children’s surnames were changed from “Jolie” to “Jolie-Pitt”. Angelina gave birth to daughter Shiloh Nouvel in Namibia, in May 2006. In the spring of the next year, Angelina adopted three-year-old Pax Thien from an orphanage in Vietnam and Brad adopted Pax in the United States about a year later.
Angelina and Brad with daughter Zahara and son Maddox in November 2006
AFP via Getty Images
âWe spent a lot of time contemplating and thinking and talking about what we both wanted in life and realized that we wanted very, very similar things,â Angelina said to Vogue in 2007. âAnd then we just continued to take time. We remained very, very good friendsâwith this realizationâfor a long time. And then life developed in a way where we could be together, where it felt like something we would do, we should do.” At the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, Angelina confirmed that she was expecting twins, and Knox Léon and daughter Vivienne Marcheline were born in July that year.
The Jolie-Pitt family arrive in Japan to promote Brad’s new film ‘Money Ball’
Masatoshi Okauchi/Rex
A few years later, speaking to The Telegraph, Jolie said: “I am very lucky with Brad. He is a real gentleman, but he is also a real man’s man. He’s got the wonderful balance of being an extraordinary, great, loving father, a very, very intelligent man and physically he’s a real man.” Meanwhile, Brad told Esquire in mid 2013: âI have very few friends. I have a handful of close friends and I have my family and I haven’t known life to be any happier. I’m making things. I just haven’t known life to be any happier.”
They got married after ten years together with an intimate ceremony at the chapel of their French home and vineyard, Château Miraval, in southeast France. Angelina wore Versace with a veil that the couplesâ children had doodled all over. “It does feel different. It feels nice to be husband and wife,â Angelina told Vanity Fair at the time.
Two years later and it was over.
In September 2016, Angelina filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The FBI and the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services then confirmed they were investigating Brad for alleged child abuse following an incident on the familyâs private jet. The actor was accused by an anonymous person of getting physical with one of his children.
According to TMZ at the time, âthe details of precisely what happenedâ were âmurky.â But it was reported that Maddox had stepped in to verbally stand up for his mother during a fight with Brad â and that the latter lost his temper. A source close to Brad told People he was âwas drunk, and there was an argument between him and Angelina,â said the source. âThere was a parent-child argument which was not handled in the right way and escalated more than it should have.â Brad has since been cleared of all allegations.
Angelina and Brad in 2014
Justin Tallis/PA
The actor hasnât made any comment about the allegations but has been open about his drinking and drug use. In a May 2017 GQ interview, Brad revealed he had quit drinking and smoking cannabis. âI can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something. And I’m running from feelings. I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year […] I was boozing too much,â Brad told the magazine. âIt’s just become a problem. You either deny them all of your life or you answer them and evolve.â
Divorce drama and abuse allegations
Brangelina had been wrangling over the split through legal proceedings in California privately and quietly, but in February 2017, Angelina spoke out about the divorce for the first time saying “we will get through this time and hopefully be a stronger family for itâ.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (C) with children (L-R) Pax Jolie-Pitt, Zahara Jolie-Pitt, Knox Jolie-Pitt, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and Maddox Jolie-Pitt attend the premiere of Disney’s “Maleficent” in 2014
Charley Gallay/Getty Images
According to court documents, Brad had been failing to give her âmeaningful supportâ financially since the split. Brad countered that he had actually loaned her $8 million plus $1.3 million for bills. The next year it was revealed that Angelina had given Brad access to the children â but they were still working towards a full settlement.
In an interview with Vogue in 2021, Angelina said she split from Brad for the âwellbeingâ of her family. âIt was the right decision,â she said. âI continue to focus on their healing. Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds. In fact, they are six very brave, very strong young people.â
In December 2020, court proceedings had begun in Los Angeles over child custody for the five youngest children, as Maddox was already over 18 and therefore an adult in the eyes of the law. Pax is now 20, while Zahara is 19, Shiloh, 17 and twins Vivienne and Knox are 15. Brad was granted joint custody of his children with Angelina.
A source close to the case told PA the judgeâs ruling would âsignificantly increaseâ Oscar-winner Bradâs time with the children. The decision is said to have been based on âextensive testimonyâ from those involved with the case, including professionals who had spent time with the children.
It marked a major breakthrough for the couple, but as they say: two steps forward, three steps back.
Angelina and Brad in 2012
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
It took nearly seven years and millions in legal fees to get to the point that the pair began splitting up their combined assets, including the French vineyard and estate, Chateau Miraval, they bought together for $60 million. In an extra twist, Brad sued his ex-wife for, according to the lawsuit, selling her stake in their co-owned vineyard to a Luxembourg-based spirits manufacturer controlled by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler without his knowledge.
Court papers submitted by Brad alleged that Angelina intentionally âsought to inflict harm onâ him by selling her stake in the business. He said they had agreed to never sell their respective interests without the otherâs consent. He also claimed the wine company grew âinto a multimillion-dollar global business and one of the worldâs most highly regarded producers of rosé wineâ through his work and that Jolie had contributed ânothing to Miravalâs success.â
Chateau Miraval, the vast French vineyard and estate once shared by Brad and Angelina
AFP via Getty Images
In a revised complaint filed in summer 2023, the Fight Club actor insisted he had first refusal on his ex-wife’s share of their idyllic winery, situated in Correns, in the South of France. Pittâs later submitted legal papers said: âAs will be demonstrated at trial, Jolieâs actions were unlawful, severely and intentionally damaging Pitt and unjustly enriching herself.â Jolie denied these allegations.
But the dispute, which was dubbed the âWar of the Rosésâ, raged on. Just a week after Pittâs revised complaint was filed, Vanity Fair dropped the bombshell accusation that talks about the vineyard sale broke down after Pitt attempted to persuade Jolie into signing an NDA â which would prevent her from speaking about the infamous 2016 private jet incident â in return for her being able to sell her stake.
The magazine spoke to the couple’s former head of security, real estate brokers and others with intimate knowledge of the couple’s time in the south of France to attain this information, but representatives for Pitt claimed that it was actually Jolie who first broached the idea of an NDA. They also claimed that the NDA was purely related to the sale of the winery, âto ensure the seller doesnât damage the value of the asset after being paid for it.â
Brad and Angelina in 2014
Getty Images
The Vanity Fair piece claimed to shed a little more light on the private jet incident as well, with the coupleâs ex-head of security telling Vanity Fair that Pitt was âdrinking quite a bitâ at the time it happened. Another source claimed: âBrad was drinking, and the confrontation got out of hand. He was absolutely wrong in how he behaved but immediately apologised and acknowledged that he had crossed a line. He will always regret [it], and right away took steps to address this and try to make amends.â Pitt apparently quit drinking immediately after the incident. Pittâs lawyer said: âThankfully, the various public authorities the other side has tried to use against him [Brad Pitt] over the past six years have made their own independent decisions. Brad will continue to respond in court as he has consistently done.â
And to top it all off, the Vanity Fair article ended by noting that since September 2016, nobody from either Pitt or Jolieâs family have returned to stay at the French property.
âWar of the Rosésâ drags on
In July 2023, Jolieâs legal team accused Brad Pitt of acting like a âpetulant childâ over the sale of her stake, with claims that Pitt has engaged in a âblatant money grab,â and has spent more time on vanity projects around the site, like building a recording studio and renovating the swimming pool, than on the vineyard and winemaking process. The filing alleges that Pitt âdeals in illusions, not dirt and grapes.â
âDuring the years that he allegedly ‘built’ the business,â the filing reads, âhe filmed and appeared in dozens of movies, not to mention making countless promotional appearances, jetting-setting around the world for movie premieres, and attending Hollywood parties.
âWhile he no doubt visited the vineyards to admire the work of the French laborers who actually made the business successful,â it continues, âPitt is no vigneron.â
âPitt wasted the companyâs assets, spending millions on vanity projects, including more than $1 million on swimming pool renovations, building and rebuilding a staircase four times, and spending millions to restore a recording studio.â
Pitt did not respond to these claims. Legal documents were then obtained by TMZ which said that Brad and Angelina had agreed to mediation, rather than settling in court, regarding their long-standing vineyard dispute. According to Daily Mail, Jolie has reportedly said she was willing to take part in a settlement conference, while Pitt appointed a âprovisional administratorâ in a bid to hopefully help negotiations.
As you may expect in a situation like this, both Brad and Angelina are represented by highly esteemed LA-based divorce lawyers, who theyâve been working with for years. But it took a while to get here â both Brad and Ange have made changes to the legal teams they initially hired back when the divorce proceedings first began. Brad was initially working with celebrity specialist lawyer Lance Spiegel, who has represented the likes of Charlie Sheen, Michael Jackson, Heather Locklear and Eva Longoria. Angelina was originally represented by lawyer-to-the-stars Laura Wasser, who previously worked with Britney Spears and Kim Kardashian during their divorces.
Jolie then ditched Wasser for another lawyer, Samantha Bley Dejean, in 2018, because she felt Dejean had more experience in the âprotection of children.â At the time, Jolie’s spokesperson, Mindy Nyby, told People: âAngelina has decided to change counsel to Samantha Bley Dejean, as Samantha’s expertise is the protection and best interest of children. Angelina appreciates Lauraâs cooperation in transitioning the case of the past several weeks.”
Brad and Angelina at a press conference in 2006
AFP via Getty Images
For his part, Pitt has transitioned to primarily using the legal expertise of Anne C Kiley (itâs unclear if Spiegel is still involved, though he was initially Pittâs primary counsel). Kiley even addressed the private jet incident in a statement to The Times in 2022 saying: âBrad has owned everything heâs responsible for from day one â unlike the other side â but heâs not going to own anything he didnât do. He has been on the receiving end of every type of personal attack and misrepresentation.â
There was also beef between Pitt and Jolieâs lawyers when Jolieâs team allegedly attempted to subpoena Pitt at the 2022 SAG awards (where a legal team demands someoneâs presence in court by handing them legal papers) Ã la Olivia Wilde, only to find that Pitt wasnât present. Representatives of Jolie and Pitt have never responded to these subpoena claims.
Brad Pitt attends Wimbledon 2023
AFP via Getty Images
Pax also became closely linked to the messy divorce battle due to resurfaced comments in late 2023 about Pitt from Father’s Day 2020. “Happy Fatherâs Day to this world class a**hole,” he wrote on Instagram under a photo of Pitt receiving an Oscar, seen by MailOnline. “You time and time again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person.
“You have no consideration or empathy toward your four youngest children who tremble in fear when in your presence,” MailOnline reports the private post as saying. “You will never understand the damage you have done to my family because you are incapable of doing so.
“You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell. You may tell yourself and the world whatever you want, but the truth will come to light someday. So, Happy Fatherâs Day, you f*****g awful human being!!!â
Pitt with children Pax Thien, Shiloh Nouvel, Maddox, and his parents Jane Pitt, and William Pitt in 2014
Getty
Pitt did not publicly respond to his son’s comments, but was cleared of all allegations of abuse. The actor also made a concerted effort to be seen to be bettering himself â he began a public wellness journey, marked by his cashmere company, gender-fluid skincare line, sobriety and foray into sculpture work.
Jolie on the other hand eluded to a difficult past few years in an interview with Vogue in 2023, where she said that her children âsavedâ her. âHaving children saved me and taught me to be in this world differently,â she told the publication.
She is currently based in Los Angeles (at the former home of Hollywood legend Cecil B DeMille which she bought for $25 million), but appears keen to eventually move away. âI would love to live abroad and will do so as soon as [all of] my children are 18,â she told Harper’s Bazaar in 2019. âRight now I’m having to base where their father chooses to live.â
Angelina Jolie reiterates claims of abuse
In an April 2024 court filing as part of the ongoing battle over Château Miraval, Jolie alleged that Pitt was abusive toward her prior to the 2016 plane incident that led her to filing for divorce.
The actress’s legal team filed a motion asking to release communications they claim would prove that Brad wouldnât allow her to sell her share of the winery to him unless she agreed to a “more onerous” and “expansive” NDA. The topic of the NDA first caused a back and forth last year in court and now itâs rearing its head again with new allegations coming to light.
The lawyers claim that, “While Pitt’s history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the familyâs September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him.”
Jolie and son Maddox in 2023
AFP via Getty Images
Pitt hasnât commented in response as yet, though a source reportedly close to him told PEOPLE,”This is a pattern of behaviour â whenever there is a decision that goes against the other side they consistently choose to introduce misleading, inaccurate and/or irrelevant information as a distraction.â
Though conversely, Jolie’s lawyers claim that she “never pressed charges as she believed the best course was for Pitt to accept responsibility and help the family recover from the post-traumatic stress he caused.”
Her attorney Paul Murphy said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE earlier this week, “Mr. Pitt refused to purchase Ms. Jolieâs interest when she would not be silenced by his NDA. By refusing to buy her interest but then suing her, Mr. Pitt put directly at issue why that NDA was so important to him and what he hoped it would bury: his abuse of Ms. Jolie and their family. After eight months of delays, this motion asks the Court to force Mr. Pitt to finally produce that evidence.”
The team claim that Jolieâs sealed filing which includes emails, summaries of the familyâs expected testimony and other evidence, caused Pitt to worry it would become public, meaning that they feel he wanted to “contractually bindâ her to staying silent about his “personal misconduct, whether related to Miraval or not.”
It remains to be seen if the motion will lead to a trial.
Brad Pittâs children appear to drop his surname
Angelina Jolie with her children Shiloh, Zahara, Vivienne and Maddox
Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images
Now, further fuel has been added to the fire with the revelation that one of Pittâs children, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, has chosen to drop his name from her surname, making her Vivienne Jolie. However, it is not clear if Vivienne has legally changed her name.
But this is not the first time reports have emerged claiming that members of the Jolie-Pitt family have dropped âPittâ from their surnames.
Eldest daughter Zahara is said to have introduced herself as âZahara Marley Jolieâ when joining a sorority at Spelman College in Atlanta, according to a video of her induction from last year.
Elsewhere, people have noticed that Shilohâs Instagram name refers to themselves as âShiloh Jolieâ with no mention of Pitt.
