Brangelina Divorce Finalised After Eight Years
At the close of 2024, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt finalised their divorce, eight years after Jolie’s initial filing. From start to finish, the divorce process has lasted four times as long as their two-year marriage, and almost as long as the decade they were together before getting married.
It’s been a long legal battle by any measure for the A-list celebrity couple, nicknamed 'Brangelina' by the media. The couple married in 2014 and had been married just two years when Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, citing “irreconcilable differences”.
Jolie’s lawyer told People magazine that since divorce proceedings began, Jolie has been focussed on "finding peace and healing for their family”.
"This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago. Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over."
Divorcing in private
From the start, the divorce was to be conducted privately. According to a statement released by the couple in 2017:
“The parties and their counsel have signed agreements to preserve the privacy rights of their children and family by keeping all court documents confidential and engaging a private judge to make any necessary legal decisions and to facilitate the expeditious resolution of any remaining issues.”
It was a logical approach, but media interest was always going to be exceptional, given the couple’s celebrity status and joint wealth. Forbes estimated that just after their divorce announcement, their combined worth was an estimated $400m. So, despite the privacy, details revealed in various court cases shed light on a bitter divorce involving allegations of violence and child custody wrangles.
Keeping it private
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Children at the centre
At the centre of the divorce and subsequent court cases were five of the couple’s six children - Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Vivienne and Knox.
By the time the custody case was raised, their oldest child Maddox was aged over 18 and so not subject to the custody decision.
Initially, Jolie requested:
“Sole physical custody of the couple’s then-minor children with visitation rights for Pitt, who would retain joint legal custody.”
Ms Jolie also alleged that Mr Pitt was abusive to her and two of their children during a private plane journey in 2016. Pitt denied the allegations, and a subsequent investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing.
In 2021, a private judge hired to oversee the custody case awarded joint custody of the children to Pitt after lengthy legal issues over child arrangements.
What’s in a name
It is perhaps a reflection of the upheaval and disruption to the children throughout the past eight years that in June 2024, the couple’s daughter Shiloh applied to a court in Los Angeles to drop the name Pitt from her surname.
Bottling it up
Latterly, the couple’s focus has shifted to Chateau Miraval, a French vineyard and estate purchased jointly in 2008 for a reputed Euro25million. In 2022, Pitt said that Jolie had sold off her stake to a Russian drinks oligarch, to deliberately damage the investment.
It appears that the final divorce settlement agreed in December does not include this disputed property. However, the legal proceedings over Chateau Miraval continue to reveal more insights into the state of the marriage prior to their divorce.
Moving on
Whilst not perhaps as popular as they were in 2016, Pitt and Jolie had both been involved in making new movies in 2024. Jolie’s biopic of opera singer Maria Callas was released on 10 January 2025, whilst Pitt was filming his new racing movie F1 at Silverstone last summer.
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