US actress Angelina Jolie has filed for dissolution of marriage from her husband Brad Pitt, Jolie's attorney has confirmed. According to TMZ, the 41-year-old Hollywood star is seeking custody of their six children.
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Hollywood's superstar couple more commonly known as "Brangelina," are divorcing. Jolie's attorney, Robert Offer, said "the decision was made for the health of the family. She will not be commenting, and asks that the family be given its privacy at this time."
Citing a legal filing, TMZ said Jolie was "extremely upset" by Pitt's parenting. Jolie listed their separation date as September 15, as per TMZ and cited "irreconcilable differences" in divorce papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday. She is seeking physical custody of her and Pitt's children with visitation rights for Pitt, but did not seek spousal support.
Pitt released a statement to People Magazine on Tuesday. "I am very saddened by this but what matters most now is the well-being of our kids," said Pitt.
The couple were together for 12 years, but did not marry until August 2014. Jolie and Pitt have six children together: Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne.
The two started dating after working together on "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" in 2004, a secret agent movie where both sides of the couple are unaware of each other's careers. They stayed in the spotlight together ever since, not getting married until 2014 in France.
The rise and fall of Brangelina
After over ten years as one of Hollywood's most powerful couples, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have split. DW takes a look at their relationship from its steamy on-set beginnings to its surprising, sudden end.
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Romance on the set of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"
In 2004, Pitt and Jolie fell in love on the set of action comedy "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." The film made the relationship between the two actors public but stirred controversy as Pitt was still married to actress Jennifer Aniston at the time.
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Brangelina's large family
The couple has a total of six children. Jolie adopted her Cambodian-born son Maddox and Ethiopian-born daughter Zahara prior to her relationship with Pitt. In 2006, Jolie gave birth to their daughter Shiloh in Namibia. One year later, the couple adopted a Vietnamese-born son named Pax. In 2008, Jolie gave birth to twins Vivienne and Knox in the French city of Nice.
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Chateau de Jolie-Pitt
Pitt and Jolie relocate to the Chateau Miraval, a vineyard estate in southern France in 2008. The couple would later hold their wedding ceremony at the home.
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Marriage delay
Pitt said he and Jolie would not get married until "everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able," in an interview with Esquire in 2006. He repeated this statement in 2009 and 2011. Marriage equality was finally achieved in the US in 2015, one year after the couple's marriage.
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Charitable couple
Pitt and Jolie started a foundation to focus on supporting aid organizations and has donated millions of dollars to charities such as Doctors Without Borders. In 2012, Jolie was named a special envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
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Brave announcement
In 2013, Jolie announced that she underwent a voluntary double mastectomy as a precautionary measure against breast cancer. She urged other women to take preventative measures. "I am fortunate to have a partner, Brad Pitt, who is so loving and supportive," she wrote at the time.
Image: Getty Images/J. Merritt
French chateau wedding
Pitt and Jolie finally married in 2014 in a nondenominational ceremony in southern France. The couple's children helped to design the patterns on Jolie's wedding dress. The children also participated in the ceremony as ring bearers, flower girls, and escorts down the aisle.
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Foreboding final film
The couple co-stared in the 2015 movie "By the Sea," a drama about the disintegration of a marriage. Jolie wrote and directed the film which received less a less than stellar response from critics. She filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016.
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Outside of the spotlight, Jolie has worked as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations and an advocate for breast cancer, undergoing a double mastectomy in 2013.
