Behind the scenes of the Brangelina break-up

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had a – to say the least – rather striking start to their relationship. If we are to believe the rumors (and honestly: we do), their love actually began when Brad was still married to Jennifer Aniston. As we all know, that marriage fell apart because of it, and he moved on with Angelina Jolie. In other words, Brangelina was born. Until they also announced their separation in 2016. It is now 2021 and that divorce is still not finalized. What’s going on?

The definitive end of their marriage was said to have come about because Brad lost control on board a plane and allegedly hit their son Maddox. That was the last straw and away went Angelina. The police and even the FBI were called in, but no charges were filed against Brad. In fact, he was declared innocent. Brad then went to AA for his alcohol addiction and has been sober for quite some time now. He is said to have also said goodbye to his joints. He was quite the stoner.

After that incident, Angelina wanted to keep their kids away from Brad. He was only allowed to see them under supervision. This took quite a long time: in 2019, Angelina said that Brad was allowed to see his children again. By the way, Angelina is still going for full custody of their children, something Brad absolutely disagrees with. That will surely play a role in the divorce, which is now entering its fifth year.

Is Brad really the boogeyman who couldn't keep his hands to himself? The alcoholic, weed-smoking father? Or is that the image that Angelina wanted to portray? The latter is something that, especially in recent years, has been circulating in Hollywood circles. Because Angelina is no fool and certainly not a stranger in the industry. More and more ‘blind items’ are about her calculated tactics to tarnish Brad's reputation. And yes, they are not called blind items for nothing (I think the site BlindGossip is mega addictive), because real evidence is not often provided.

So we have to make do with the facts and the statements both stars made (about each other). It is clear that Angelina puts her children first: she has said multiple times that the divorce was ‘the best for the children’ and that she ‘wants to do everything to ensure the children are okay’. But she slipped up a year ago when she said that Brad failed to pay ‘meaningful child support’. That turned out not to be entirely true: Brad had already paid over nine million dollars, to pay for her house and to take care of the kids. Seems quite meaningful to me.

Additionally, Brad said he did not appreciate that she wanted to publicly shame him, and that the children are also aware of this. In that respect, he is right: this is one of the few times Brad has spoken out about her media practices. Angelina, on the other hand, has taken almost every opportunity to paint Brad as a bad father.

Well, that brings us to December 2020. Brad now has a new girlfriend, the German model Nicole Poturalski, with whom he travels the world (mainly pre-corona). This did not sit well with his still-on-paper wife Angelina, who threatened to make secret recordings public at the end of last year. According to her, this would be disastrous for their ongoing lawsuit. So there’s a good chance we’ll learn more about that this year. Although we also know that Amber Heard tried to do exactly the same with Johnny Depp and well, that backfired. 

It seemed to have been a bit quieter between this couple lately. Until the end of last year. Could they also have the good intention of officially divorcing this year? If not, I’ll just write another update next year.