Why has the Pitt and Jolie divorce taken so long?

Arguably, the biggest A-list couple today, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been married for two years – but it has taken eight years since they announced their divorce to finalize the union. Why did it take four times for the marriage to end?

Part of the answer is that it’s a very messy divorce, plagued by legal disputes involving their children and the French vineyard they bought together.

Some of that still needs to be resolved in what Jolie’s lawyer called “a long ongoing process”.

Prominent lawyer Chris Melcher told BBC News that the divorce had taken too long.

“This is longer than any divorce we see,” he said.

“But initially they had disputes about ownership and then it revolved around the winery they own, and this has been the focus of their battle over the last few years.”

Many celebrities want to divorce quickly and move on, Melcher explained.

“Most of the time if we grow up, we can solve it in six months, a year not more than a year. Eight years is a sign of something happening.

“I can’t stop wanting to hurt others.”

Kate Daly, co-founder of online divorce firm Amicable, told the BBC that such a case is very different from the average divorce.

“It’s an industry… [they can afford] many expensive lawyers,” he said. It’s corporate and it’s a bad example – we need to stay away [normal] people of this type. “

Jolie, 49, and Pitt, 61, met after meeting on the set of the film Mr & Mrs Smith, which was released in 2005.

“Because of this movie, we were brought together to do these crazy things, and I think we found a strange relationship and collaboration that just happened out of the blue,” Jolie told Vogue in 2007.

Both were previously married – Pitt to Friends star Jennifer Aniston, and Jolie to actors Jonny Lee Miller (1996 to 2000) and Billy Bob Thornton (2000 to 2003).

Jolie and Pitt have six children.

Jolie adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002 a few months after his birth. Pitt later married her and Jolie when they started dating.

In 2005, the couple adopted daughter Zahara from Ethiopia when she was a few months old.

The couple’s first child, Shiloh, was born in Namibia in 2006. Earlier this year, it was reported that Shiloh had filed a petition in court to remove Pitt from her name.

Their son Pax was adopted at the age of three from Vietnam in 2007, and twins Knox and Vivienne were born in 2008.

The two last appeared together in November 2015 in the film they both starred in, By the Sea. It was about an unhappy family, and was written and directed by Jolie.

The two don’t like to talk about their relationship but while promoting the film, Jolie told The Telegraph: “Brad and I have our issues.

“We have fights and problems like any other family. We have days when we are very angry with each other and we need space, but the problems in the film are not our real problems.”

The news that Jolie is divorcing, citing “irreconcilable differences”, surprised many people in September 2016.

It was revealed that they divorced a day after boarding a private plane.

Pitt initially claimed he hit his son Maddox, then 15, on a trip from France to Los Angeles. The FBI and social workers investigated the claims, but nothing was done. Pitt denied wrongdoing.

Then in 2022, legal documents from the vineyard revealed that Jolie criticized Pitt about drunkenly assaulting her and two children on a plane.

At the time, a source close to the actor told the BBC that the claims were false.

Talking to Vogue in 2020Jolie said she left Pitt for the “good” of her family.

“It was the right decision,” he said. “I continue to focus on their healing.”

In an interview with GQ in 2017Pitt spoke about his decision to quit drinking and smoking weed, saying that the split was “a big generator of change”.

As for the divorce, Pitt said he and Jolie decided to stop the process of “vitriolic hostility” and work together to resolve their issues, adding that they were committed to resolving matters amicably and privately.

Their efforts to reach an agreement on divorce and custody of their children appeared to be aggressive and protracted.

In 2019, a judge announced that the couple was still single, but that the divorce should be finalized.

They reached a custody agreement in 2018, but it seemed to fall apart. In 2021, the Pitts were allowed to live together after a court dispute, but the private judge overseeing the case was dismissed because he did not disclose his business relationship with Pitt’s lawyers.

This raised the prospect of a new case, but nothing has been revealed.

And while the divorce saga is now drawing to a close, there is another legal battle still going on – related to the vineyard.

Pitt and Jolie bought Chateau Miraval together in 2008 and were married in its chapel in 2014.

But Jolie sold her stake to a spirits manufacturer owned by a Russian oligarch, according to Pitt’s lawsuit. He is suing his ex-wife for selling his shares in the division saying that they agreed not to sell their shares without the other’s consent. Jolie has not commented publicly.

Few details of the divorce proceedings have been revealed. Private judges are often hired in the US to resolve disputes between divorcees on private grounds.

Their children are now between the ages of 16 and 23, and showbiz reporter Jeanne Wolf emphasized the emotional breakdown.

“It’s been an emotional and very difficult divorce. It’s been very disruptive to the children and the couple involved,” she said.

They have tried very hard not to know much about what was going on in the family.

Jolie’s attorney clarified the time she posted on Monday. “This is just part of a long-term project that began eight years ago,” he said.

“To be honest, Angelina is tired, but she’s relieved this part is over.”