Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Actress Angelina Jolie has filed for a divorce from actor Brad Pitt, her attorney said in a statement on Tuesday, signalling the end of one of Hollywood’s most glamorous and powerful couples.
“This decision was made for the health of the family. She will not be commenting, and asks that the family be given its privacy at this time,” attorney Robert Offer said in the statement.
Jolie filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, citing irreconcilable differences as grounds for the split, court documents showed. She sought full physical custody of their six children and Pitt asked for visitation rights. Their children include sons adopted from Cambodia and Vietnam (Maddox and Pax) and a daughter, Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia.
Entertainment website TMZ, citing a legal filing, said Jolie “was extremely upset” by Pitt’s parenting methods.
Jolie and Pitt, known collectively as “Brangelina,” were one of the entertainment world’s most visible couples, due to their good looks, successful films and activism. They married in August 2014 after 10 years together.
Activism and charity work
Jolie has taken on humanitarian causes and frequently went to countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Tanzania, Iraq and Jordan to call attention to the plight of refugees and the underprivileged.
To encourage other women to explore their options, Jolie spoke out publicly about her elective surgeries in 2013 and 2015 to have her breasts, ovaries and fallopian tubes removed as a preventive measure due to a family history of cancer.
Pitt’s breakout role came in a supporting part in Thelma & Louise in 1991. His other films include Kalifornia, Legends of the Fall, Se7en and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
People across the internet were devastated by the news of the couple’s split, with some saying true love doesn’t exist, now that the couple have broken up.
Others disagreed, however, citing US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as an example of true love.
With Brangelina being the latest Hollywood couple to split, at least we still have #KimYe to root for.