|
 "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 a
statement.
The Oscar-winning actress filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on
Monday, citing irreconcilable differences, court documents
showed. Jolie sought full physical custody of their six children
ages 8 to 15 with visitation rights for Pitt but did not seek
spousal support. Jolie cited their separation date as Sept. 15.
"I am very saddened by this but what matters most now is the
well-being of our kids," Pitt told People magazine. "I kindly
ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this
challenging time."
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 2014
after a decade together.
Their relationship was steady fodder for tabloids with reports
focusing on what role Jolie played in the breakup of Pitt's
marriage to actress Jennifer Aniston and, more recently,
possible trouble in the marriage.
Media commentators reacted with surprise and sadness to the
news. "Today shall go down as the day love died," Vogue magazine
said in an online report on the couple's split.
Social media buzzed with #brangelina mentioned roughly 720 times
per minute on Twitter, more than triple mentions for the United
Nations General Assembly, according to analytics firm Zoomph.
Jolie, 41, who won a best-supporting actress Oscar for "Girl,
Interrupted" in 2000, was previously married to actors Jonny Lee
Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.
Pitt, 52, was married to Aniston in 2003 when he and Jolie
filmed "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," the story of assassins unknowingly
assigned to kill each other. There were reports of an affair,
but Jolie told Vogue they were only "very, very good friends"
until Pitt and Aniston split in 2005.
Before their August 2014 wedding at their French estate, Jolie
and Pitt had said they would not wed until same-sex couples were
allowed to marry.
MOVIES BOOKEND THE RELATIONSHIP
While Pitt and Jolie won praise for their on-screen chemistry in
"Mr. & Mrs. Smith," their most recent film collaboration, "By
the Sea," last year was about a married couple drifting apart.
Jolie wrote and directed the latter.
[to top of second column] |
Jolie has been estranged from her father, actor Jon Voight, but he
told "Inside Edition" he was concerned about the divorce filing.
"It’s very sad," he said. "Something very serious must have happened
for Angelina to make a decision like this.”
Peter Walzer, a California attorney who represented actress Katie
Holmes in her divorce from superstar Tom Cruise, said in a phone
interview it was unusual Jolie sought sole physical custody of the
children and it was equivalent to saying Pitt was not competent to
be a parent. “It’s an insult,” Walzer said.
Jolie had an offbeat reputation early in her career but has taken on
humanitarian causes and was named a special envoy for the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees.
She traveled to Afghanistan, Sudan, Tanzania, Iraq and Jordan to
call attention to the plight of refugees and the underprivileged.
The couple started a foundation to finance reconstruction of homes
in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Together they started the
Jolie-Pitt Foundation in 2006 to help charities worldwide.
Their children include sons adopted from Cambodia and Vietnam and a
daughter adopted from Ethiopia, as well as three biological children
To encourage other women, Jolie spoke out publicly about elective
surgeries in 2013 and 2015 to remove her breasts, ovaries and
fallopian tubes as a preventive measure due to a family history of
cancer.
In addition to her Oscar win, Jolie was nominated for an Academy
Award for "Changeling" in 2008. Pitt's breakout role came in a
supporting part in "Thelma & Louise" in 1991. His other films
include "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Inglourious Basterds,"
"Moneyball," and the "Ocean's 11" films.
(Story refiled to add dropped word 'in' in paragraph 6)
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Piya Sinha-Roy; Additional
reporting by Melissa Fares and Angela Moon; Writing by Bill Trott;
Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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