An In-Depth Timeline of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Divorce Drama
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In the eight years since Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt due to his alleged physical abuse, the former celebrity power couple have remained intertwined through a plethora of legal issues and custody battles.
From a years-long battle over a vineyard purchased in the early years of their relationship to Pitt’s alleged estrangement from his children amid abuse allegations, the duo have faced a long, rocky road since splitting in 2016.
May 2008
The couple buys a controlling interest in Château Miraval vineyard in southern France, although they don’t officially purchase the home until 2012, when the 1,200-acre estate sells to Jolie and Pitt for $60 million. The pair used the estate as the venue for their very intimate wedding ceremony two years later.
Sept 2016
Jolie files for divorce from Pitt following an alleged physical altercation on board a private jet home from France to Los Angeles on Sept. 14, 2016. The actress requests physical custody of the couple’s six children, her attorney adding that “this decision was made for the health of the family. She will not be commenting at this time and asks that the family be given their privacy during this difficult time.”
Meanwhile, Pitt told People, “I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the well-being of our kids. I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time.”
October 2016
Although neither of the exes spoke publicly on the specifics, singer Melissa Etheridge, friend of Pitt, addressed the “completely unfounded” abuse allegations against Pitt on Andy Cohen’s Sirius XM show.
“It breaks my heart that anyone would take something as personal as your marriage and your relationship and your rights to your children and do it as purposefully as I see it being done,” she told Cohen, taking a swipe at Jolie.
November 2016
Months after the alleged altercation, the FBI launch a review into Pitt’s behavior. While flying from France to Los Angeles, the report details that Pitt allegedly grabbed Jolie by the head, shook her, and pushed her against the bathroom wall, according to Jolie. Then, Pitt allegedly charged at one of his kids, before Jolie caught him in a chokehold, and he threw her back. The report also details a claim that Pitt allegedly poured beer on Jolie.
Although this report doesn’t become public until August 2022, the FBI decline to file charges against Pitt.
“In response to allegations made following a flight within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States which landed in Los Angeles carrying Mr. Brad Pitt and his children, the FBI has conducted a review of the circumstances and will not pursue further investigation,” the report reads. “No charges have been filed in this matter.”
January 2018
Jolie is nominated for a BAFTA and Golden Globe for First They Killed My Father, the film adaptation of Loung Ung’s memoir, co-written and directed by Jolie. The film, which received critical praise, also wins the Hollywood Foreign Language Film Award at the Hollywood Film Awards.
June 2018
While Jolie films Maleficent: Mistress of Evil in London, a temporary custody ruling allows Pitt access to his kids, with the exemption of then 16-year old Maddox. The L.A. Superior Court rules that “not having a relationship with their father” would be “harmful” to the children, while allowing Maddox to choose his own arrangement, given his age.
April 2019
Jolie and Pitt are declared “legally single” by Judge John W. Ouderkirk, allowing them to separately file taxes while the exes sort out their remaining custody and financial agreements.
July 2019
Pitt’s first major film since the divorce, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood releases to rave reviews and major box office success. The film kicks off a wildly successful awards season for Pitt, the actor winning an Academy Award, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild award, Critics Choice, and a Golden Globe for his performance as Cliff Booth.
The run not only cements Pitt’s continued role in Hollywood amid the tumultuous divorce, but features a highly publicized reunion with ex-wife Jennifer Aniston backstage at the SAG awards. In June 2021, Aniston discusses the reunion with Howard Stern, telling him, “It was absolutely fun. You know, Brad and I are buddies. Like, we’re friends and we speak.”
“There’s no oddness at all, except for everyone that probably watched it and was wanting there to be,” she adds.
October 2019
Jolie follows Pitt’s Hollywood comeback with a box office smash of her own in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. The Disney sequel takes almost $500 million at the box office, although it’s shut out from most major award shows.
March 2021
In a rare public outing, Jolie and actress Ellen Pompeo go to dinner in Beverly Hills, a source telling People the two have grown closer as their daughters are friends.
“Angie has a tight support system that largely consists of her household staff, her brother, James, and a handful of very trusted friends,” a source tells Us Weekly. “She and Ellen Pompeo have known each other for years but really bonded during lockdown because their kids are really close.”
July 2021
Jolie’s legal team later files a claim with a California appeals court in August 2020, requesting that Judge Ouderkirk remove himself from the case due to his failure to reveal his business dealings with Pitt’s attorneys.
Pitt scores a brief legal victory in May 2021 when Judge Ouderkirk grants him joint custody of the couple’s six children. However, in July the appeals court grants Jolie’s request, ruling that “Judge Ouderkirk’s ethical breach, considered together with the information disclosed concerning his recent professional relationships with Pitt’s counsel, might cause an objective person, aware of all the facts, reasonably to entertain a doubt as to the judge’s ability to be impartial.”
“If you’re going to play the role of a paid private judge you have to play by the rules and the rules are very clear, they require full transparency,” Jolie’s attorney Robert Olson says at the time. “Matters that should have been disclosed were not disclosed.”
Pitt’s attorney says the disqualification attempt is a stalling tactic by Jolie’s team.
“The appeals court ruling was based on a technical procedural issue. The facts haven’t changed. There is an extraordinary amount of factual evidence which led the judge—and the many experts who testified—to reach their clear conclusion about what is in the children’s best interests,” a representative for Pitt says in a statement. “We will continue to do what’s necessary legally based on the detailed findings of what’s best for the children.”
November 2021
Marvel’s $200-million+ Eternals releases to mixed reviews and fails to make a profit at the box office. The film, one of the first Marvel Cinematic Universe box-office “flops,” begins a rocky period for the blockbuster franchise, and plans for a sequel are quietly shelved.
The film is banned from several countries for openly depicting a gay couple, a decision Jolie criticizes as “ignorant.”
“I’m sad for [those audiences],” Jolie tells a press roundtable to mark the film’s release. “And I’m proud of Marvel for refusing to cut those scenes out. I still don’t understand how we live in a world today where there’s still [people who] would not see the family Phastos has and the beauty of that relationship and that love. How anybody is angry about it, threatened by it, doesn’t approve or appreciate it is ignorant.”
Eternals fails to score many big film awards, although Jolie is nominated for Best Movie Actress at the 2022 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.
Angelina Jolie Blames Her Bell’s Palsy on Marriage With Brad Pitt Falling Apart
February 2022
Pitt files a lawsuit against Jolie, alleging she illegally sold her shares of Château Miraval. Pitt’s lawsuit claims that he discovered Jolie sold her shares to Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler’s Stoli Group without his consent in October 2021, despite a previous agreement that entails neither party can sell without the other’s permission.
Jolie’s legal team disagrees, claiming Pitt received a letter in January 2021 saying she plans to sell her shares if the couple cannot agree on an “outright sale.” The letter, which has since been made public, says that Jolie believes two solutions would be best: selling the winery or a “complete buy out” of her shares.
“In either case, I believe we need to move forward in order to heal and focus on where our family comes together, and where we have positive associations. And to do so quickly,” the letter writes.
“Miraval for me died September 2016, and everything I have seen in the years since confirms that,” it adds.
In 2023, Pitt’s lawyers allege that Jolie’s intent to sell her shares was “vindictive.”
August 2022
Pitt’s action film Bullet Train releases to mixed reviews but is a moderate box-office success, one that provides hope as movie theaters chart their post-pandemic recovery. On the red carpet, Pitt praises his daughter Zahara, who has recently been accompanied by mom Jolie to Spelman college (which spurs a viral video of Jolie dancing at orientation).
September 2022
Pitt launches a “genderless” skincare line, Le Domaine, co-founded with the Perrin family, the “leading organic wine grower of the Southern Rhône Valley,” according to the family’s website.
Pitt tells Vogue, “I don’t want to be running from aging.”
“It’s a concept we can’t escape, and I would like to see our culture embracing it a bit more, talking about it in those terms,” he adds.
October 2022
Jolie’s legal team files a cross-complaint that alleges Pitt tried to gain control of the winery as revenge, and that the couple had never agreed that they couldn’t sell their shares of the winery without the other’s consent.
The filing goes on to allege that the sale negotiation had broken down due to “a nondisclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.”
The filing also alleges that Pitt had “choked one of the children and struck another in the face” aboard the private flight in 2016.
In a statement to Us Weekly, Pitt’s lawyer Anne Kiley rebukes the abuse allegations.
“Brad has owned everything he’s responsible for from day one—unlike the other side—but he’s not going to own anything he didn’t do,” Kiley says. “He has been on the receiving end of every type of personal attack and misrepresentation.”
November 2022
Pitt goes public with girlfriend Ines de Ramon, ex-wife of The Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley, after the couple are spotted backstage at a Bono concert. In July 2023, a source told US Weekly de Ramon has been supportive of the actor amid his legal drama.
“It’s widely known that Brad is dealing with a lot of legal drama but Ines’ feelings for him haven’t wavered whatsoever,” the source says. “If anything, it’s only made their connection stronger in a lot of ways because they’re very open and honest when it comes to communication about their lives, whether it be the good or the bad times.”
Nouvel, a company founded by Jolie, then sues Pitt for $350 million in damages. The suit alleges Pitt tried to “seize control” of Château Miraval by “appointing himself the rightful owner” in order to “usurp the value of Jolie’s company, Nouvel.”
“Although Jolie was not obligated to sell to Pitt, she nevertheless offered to sell her interest to him and negotiated with him for months,” the suit alleges. “Nearing a deal, Pitt's hubris got the better of him: he made an eleventh-hour demand for onerous and irrelevant conditions, including a provision designed to prohibit Jolie from publicly speaking about the events that had led to the breakdown of their marriage.”
“Pitt knew that much of Jolie’s wealth and liquidity were tied up in Nouvel and used that fact to try to force Jolie to agree to his unreasonable terms,” the lawsuit continues.
December 2022
The same month Jolie takes Zahara to Capitol Hill, Damian Chazelle’s Babylon, which stars Pitt and Margot Robbie (in a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood reunion) releases to polarized reviews and becomes a major box office bomb, grossing $63 million, less than the movie’s budget.
Despite the mixed reaction to the film, it manages to snag several award nominations, with Pitt scoring a Golden Globe nod.
November 2023
After a 2020 Instagram story posted by the exes’ then-16-year old son Pax surfaces, calling Pitt a “world class asshole” and “fucking awful human being,” a source for Pitt tells Page Six the situation is in the past.
“This is just unfortunate that people would keep trying to bring kids into things,” the source says.
Meanwhile, friends of Pitt tell The Sun that the allegations are part of a “depressing smear campaign.”
“Brad has great respect for all of his children and it’s depressing to see this dragged up,” a source says. “It’s frustrating to see Brad being painted as some kind of ‘bad person’ when it’s far from the truth.” The source also claims that, despite Pitt’s estrangement from several of his children, he “still sees Shiloh and the twins [Knox and Vivenne], though not as often as he’d like.”
April 2024
In a court filing, Jolie alleges that Pitt’s abuse started “well before” the 2016 flight incident.
“While Pitt’s history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s 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,” the filing states.
The filing also alleges that Pitt won’t let Jolie sell her shares of the winery because she “would not be silenced” by an 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,” the lawyers claim.
Pitt demands Jolie turn over her previous non-disclosure agreements to prove whether they were actually “the deal-ender” Jolie claims them to be. Jolie has pushed back against that request, claiming it’s “abusive” and “unreasonable.”
June 2024
Jolie wins a Tony Award for producing The Outsiders: A New Musical, taking the stage to accept the honor with 15-year-old daughter Vivienne, who also worked as a production assistant on the Broadway show after encouraging her mother to check out an early version of it. The win now means that, like Pitt, she is halfway to EGOT status.
The exes are still embroiled in legal drama. Although reports earlier this year suggested the divorce could be imminent, a final custody and financial decision have yet to be made. The Daily Beast has reached out to both parties about the status of the divorce, but did not receive any response from either side.
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