Brad Pitt And Angelina Jolie: The Real Story Behind Their Intense Love And Shocking Split

When two of the biggest stars in the world get together, it can send the press into a frenzy. Yet when they break up, it’s an even bigger story. For Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, the last 12 years were filled with ups and downs, and their marriage finally disintegrated to the point that Jolie filed for divorce in September of last year. Their Hollywood love story began on screen and ended behind closed doors, but fans can’t seem to get enough of the couple once known as Brangelina.

It all started in 2003 when Jolie and Pitt met on the set of their spy-thriller Mr. and Mrs. Smith. At the time, Pitt was famously married to Jennifer Aniston, and Jolie was a single mother, having just adopted her son Maddox from an orphanage in Cambodia. Jolie told Vogue that they were both living full lives and they were the last two people who were looking for a relationship, but that didn’t keep sparks from flying between the two.

According to People Magazine, Jolie says the chemistry between the two was obvious both on and off the screen, and she got to the point where she was excited to go to work every day. The two quickly became friends, and once filming wrapped on their movie, they realized that there was more going on between them than they originally thought.

By 2005, photos started popping up of the two of them on vacation together with Maddox, and once he called Pitt “dad,” they knew there were meant to be a family. At that time, Jolie finished up the adoption process with her daughter Zahara and not long after the couple revealed they were expecting a child together. After Pitt adopted Jolie’s two children, the actors welcomed their daughter Shiloh in May of 2006.

The couple went on to adopt one more son, Pax, in 2007; and then Jolie gave birth to twins Knox and Vivienne in 2008.

Finally, after 10 years and six kids together, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie decided to tie the knot in 2014 at Chateau Miraval, the family’s estate in Correns, France. Not long after, the couple appeared together onscreen for the first time since Mr. and Mrs. Smith, with the movie By the Sea. Ironically, the film was about a couple whose marriage is falling apart.

After a romantic getaway to Vietnam during the 2015 holidays, the couple was seen together in public less and less. Finally, as Us Weekly reports, during a flight on their private jet on September 14, 2016, Jolie called the Division of Children and Family services after Pitt allegedly got into an altercation with Maddox. DFS reps interviewed both Jolie and Pitt, as did the FBI, but ultimately no charges were filed.

But, that was the end for the couple, and Jolie filed for divorce just days later.

Even though it has been over a year since the filing, the divorce is not yet final, leading some to speculate there could be hope for reconciliation. However, it doesn’t seem likely. Jolie has filed for sole physical custody of the children, and she and the kids moved out of the family home to their own place, and 11,000 square foot mansion in the Los Angeles neighborhood, Los Feliz.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have reportedly hired a private judge to settle their divorce, but the two remain legally married.

[Featured Image by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images]