Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

No Hollywood couple embodied the vision of a fairytale quite like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, so it came as a shock when the two suddenly announced their separation in early 2005. Their five-year marriage had all the makings of a happy ending—smiling public appearances, gushy interviews and even an Emmy-nominated guest spot from Brad on her hit show Friends. The split was mired in rumors about her unwillingness to start a family because she was too focused on her career, but the truth was a bit more complicated.
 
In 2004, Brad was busy filming an action film about a suburban married couple, bored with their lives and with each other until they realize they are both living the same double life—they are trained assassins. Sparks fly, fights ensue, and ultimately the truth ends up reigniting their tepid relationship into a passionate cant-keep-our-hands-off-each-other love affair. Unfortunately for Jen, the same was happening behind the scenes between Brad and his sexy co-star, Angelina Jolie.

Aniston shrank away from the spotlight to hide out in Malibu while Pitt and Jolie were photographed frolicking on the beach in Kenya with her adopted son Maddox in April 2005. When Mr. and Mrs. Smith was released in June,they still claimed they were just friends, but the passionate onscreen chemistry told a different story, as did his presence in July when she went to Namibia to adopt her second child, Zahara. They didn’t appear in public together as an official couple until November of that year.

Immediately, their relationship shot forward at a freight train pace and “Brangelina” was born. Brad filed to legally adopt Angelina’s two children in December, a request that was granted in January 2006. Also in January, Angelina confirmed that she was already five months pregnant. Their third child, and first biological daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, was born in Namibia on May 27, 2006 by cesarean section. That same year, they established their own charity, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which provides aid to multiple humanitarian causes.

Brad Pitt became a father to three kids and a charitable organization within the span of five months, but he wasn’t done yet. Within a year, they adopted their fourth child, a boy from Vietnam, Pax Thien, and seven months later, Jolie was pregnant again. She hid the pregnancy for months, but two months before she was due to give birth, at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, she announced that she was expecting twins. She gave birth to a boy and a girl, Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline, on July 12, 2008. The couple refused to marry, but settled into a chaotic form of domestic bliss—being parents to six young children and constantly dodging the media.

But the mini-saga between Angelina, Brad and Jennifer wasn’t quite over. In October of 2008, Angelina let it slip in an interview with The New York Times that she wanted her kids to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith someday because, “Not a lot of people get to see a movie where their parents fell in love.” The faux pas went against the couple’s previous story that they didn’t start dating until after Pitt and Aniston divorced. Aniston responded in the December issue of Vogue that Jolie’s comments were “uncool.” The two sides exchanged some jabs, sensationalized by the press to be more than it probably was.

Although Brangelina seems to be content as is, the media continues to rattle their cages with rumors of problems, fights, affairs, Brad’s unresolved feelings for Jen, pregnancies, adoption plans and impending nuptials (they said that they wouldn’t get married until gay marriage was legalized). But one shady start, one jilted wife, three adopted kids and three biological kids later, they’re still going strong.



Filed under:  angelina jolie
Tags:   Angelina Jolie , Brad Pitt , Relationship
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