Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are divorced.
After eight long years of bitter legal battles over child custody, property, finances, and more, the actors have finalized their divorce.
“More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt. She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family,” Jolie’s lawyer James Simon said in a statement to CNN on Monday. “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.”
The former couple met while co-starring in the 2005 movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Pitt was still with his first wife, Jennifer Aniston, at the time. He divorced her and, shortly after, began a relationship with Jolie.
In 2005, Pitt accompanied Jolie to Ethiopia to adopt daughter Zahara, now 19, (Jolie was already mom to son Maddox, now 23). And in 2006, the pair welcomed Shiloh, now 18. They later adopted son Pax, now 21, and welcomed their fraternal twins, Knox and Vivienne, now 16. Jolie and Pitt finally married in 2014, at their Château Miraval winery in France. But in September 2016, the Maleficent star filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
Over the years, more details about the actors’ sudden separation have been revealed, including an incident that happened on a private plane—in which Pitt allegedly acted violently toward Jolie and their kids.
While both actors have stayed mostly silent in public about the details of their yearslong divorce, Jolie opened up in a rare, candid interview last year about the physical pain she went through when she and Pitt separated. “My body reacts very strongly to stress,” the Maria star told WSJ. Magazine. “My blood sugar goes up and down. I suddenly had Bell’s palsy six months before my divorce.”
In 2019, a judge declared Jolie and Pitt divorced and single, but the issue of splitting their assets and agreeing on custody of their six children remained.
While the fine print on Jolie and Pitt’s custody agreement has not been publicly revealed, their legal battle has been so long that most of their kids are now over 18, negating the need for a custody agreement for them. Shiloh, the actors’ oldest biological child, recently had her father’s last name legally removed from her own, and she is now known as Shiloh Jolie (rather than Shiloh Jolie-Pitt). Zahara and Vivienne have also stopped using his surname.