Why has the Pitt and Jolie divorce taken so long?

Arguably the modern era’s biggest A-list couple, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were married for two years – but it has taken eight years since announcing their divorce to finally reach a deal. Why did it take four times as long as the marriage itself to settle?

One part of the answer is that it’s a particularly messy divorce, complicated by bitter legal disputes involving their children and a French vineyard they bought together.

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

Celebrity lawyer Chris Melcher told BBC News the divorce settlement had taken an unusually long time.

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

“But they initially had fights over custody and then it revolved around this winery they own together, and that’s been the focus of their fight over the last few years.”

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

“A lot of times in a case of this magnitude we can settle it within six months, a year at the very most. Eight years is really a sign of something more going on.

“It’s an inability to let go and a desire to really harm the other.”

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

“It’s an industry… [they can afford] lots of expensive lawyers,” she said. “Most people couldn’t afford for it to take eight years. It’s an industry and it’s a bad example – we have to distance [normal] people from that kind of narrative.”

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

“Because of the film, we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened,” Jolie told Vogue in 2007.

Both had been married before – 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 share six children together.

Jolie adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002 a few months after he was born. Pitt later adopted him after he and Jolie had begun their relationship.

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

The couple’s first biological child, Shiloh, was born in Namibia in 2006. Earlier this year, it was reported that Shiloh had submitted a petition to a court to drop 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 couple made their final red carpet appearance together in November 2015 for a film they both starred in, By the Sea. It was about an unhappily married couple, and was written and directed by Jolie.

The couple rarely discussed their relationship but when promoting the film, Jolie told The Telegraph: “Brad and I have our issues.

“We have fights and problems like any other couple. We have days when we drive each other absolutely mad and want space, but the problems in the movie aren’t our specific problems.”

The news that Jolie was filing for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences”, came as a shock to many in September 2016.

It emerged that she filed for divorce a day after an incident on board a private plane.

Pitt was initially alleged to have hit son Maddox, then 15, on the flight from France to Los Angeles. The FBI and social workers examined the claims, but neither took any action. Pitt denied wrongdoing.

Then in 2022, legal papers from the vineyard dispute revealed that Jolie accused Pitt of drunkenly attacking her and two children during the flight.

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

Speaking to Vogue in 2020, Jolie said she left Pitt for the “wellbeing” of her family.

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

In an interview with GQ in 2017, Pitt spoke about his decision to quit drinking and smoking marijuana, saying the split had been a “huge generator for change”.

Regarding the divorce, Pitt said he and Jolie had decided to abandon a path of “vitriolic hatred” and work together to sort out their issues, adding that they were committed to resolving matters amicably and privately.

Their attempts to reach agreements over the divorce and custody of their children appeared to be acrimonious and protracted.

In 2019, a judge declared that the couple were officially single, but that the divorce still needed to be finalised.

They reached a custody deal in 2018, but that appeared to fall apart. In 2021, Pitt was granted joint custody after a court battle, but the private judge who oversaw the case was later removed because he did not disclose his business relationships with Pitt’s lawyers.

That raised the prospect of a fresh custody case, but nothing has been made public.

And while the divorce saga may now be drawing to a close, there is another legal battle still ongoing – to do with the vineyard.

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

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

Few details of the divorce proceedings have been revealed. Private judges are often hired in the US to mediate disputes between divorcing celebrities for privacy reasons.

Their children are now all aged between 16 and 23, and showbiz journalist Jeanne Wolf emphasised the emotional fallout.

“It’s been a very emotional and complicated divorce settlement. It’s taken a big toll on the children and the couple involved,” she said.

“They have tried very hard not to let too many details known about what went on in that marriage.”

Jolie’s lawyer highlighted the passage of time in his statement on Monday. “This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago,” he said.

“Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.”