Angelina Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt have reached a settlement agreement, eight years after the couple filed for divorce. (AP: Charles Sykes/Invision)
In short:
Angelina Jolie's lawyer has confirmed she has reached a divorce settlement with Brad Pitt, after more than eight years of legal negotiations.
Jolie first filed for divorce in 2016, after a private jet flight from Europe during which she said Pitt was abusive toward her and their children.Â
What's next?
Court documents are yet to have been filed, and a judge will need to sign off on the settlement agreement.Â
Actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have reached a divorce settlement, bringing an apparent end to one of the longest and most contentious divorces in Hollywood history, according to Jolie's lawyer.
Attorney James Simon confirmed to The Associated Press that the couple had come to a deal filed as a default declaration in the Los Angeles Superior Court.Â
News of the settlement was first reported by People magazine.
"More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr Pitt," Mr Simon said in a statement.Â
"She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family.Â
"This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago.Â
"Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over."
The court filing says the couple agree to give up the right to any future spousal financial support, but gives no other details, and a judge will need to sign off on the agreement.Â
An email sent late on Monday to Pitt's attorney seeking comment was not immediately answered.
Jolie, 49, and Pitt, 61, were among Hollywood's most prominent couples for 12 years.Â
Angelina Jolie reveals physical abuse allegations against Brad Pitt
Photo shows Actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attend the premiere of "The Normal Heart"
The two Oscar winners have six children together.
Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, after a private jet flight from Europe during which she said Pitt was abusive toward her and their children.Â
A judge in 2019 declared them divorced and single, but the splitting of assets and child custody needed to be separately settled.
A private judge that the two had hired to handle the case reached a decision soon after that included equal custody of their children, but Jolie filed to have him removed from the case over an unreported conflict of interest.Â
Pitt and Angelina, pictured with producer Arnon Milchan, began dating in 2004 after co-starring as hitman-and-hitwoman spouses in Mr and Mrs Smith. (Reuters: Fred Prouser)
During the long divorce fight, four of the couple's six children became adults, negating the need for a custody agreement for them.Â
The only two that remain minors are 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. In June, one of their daughters, then known as Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, successfully petitioned to remove Pitt's name from hers.
Their other children are 23-year-old Maddox, 21-year-old Pax and 19-year-old Zahara
An appeals court agreed, the judge was removed, and the couple had to start over.
No details of the agreement were immediately revealed, and the couple's use of the private judge — an increasingly common move among splitting celebrities in recent years — has kept the proceedings largely under wraps.Â
There have been no official court actions in the case in nearly a year, and no indication that the two had been nearing an agreement.
Jolie, pictured with Pitt in 2014, filed for divorce from the actor in 2016 after a private jet flight from Europe during which she said he was abusive toward her and their children. (Reuters: Andrew Kelly)
Some details have been revealed through a separate lawsuit filed by Pitt, in which he alleged Jolie reneged on an agreement that she would sell him her half of a French winery the two owned together.Â
Jolie instead sold her part of the winery, Chateau Miraval, to the Tenute del Mondo wine group, a subsidiary of the Stoli Group, which Pitt said was a "vindictive" move that ruined a private space that had been a second home.
Jolie's attorneys said the winery sale agreement broke down over Pitt's demand that as part of the deal she sign a wide-ranging non-disclosure agreement about him. In court documents, she called that an attempt to cover up his physical abuse of her, which she said turned toward the children on the 2016 flight.
Along with the federal and Los Angeles County officials, the initial judge in the case heard testimony on the allegations before deciding to give Pitt equal custody of the children.
Pitt allegedly poured beer on Jolie, along with red wine on the children. (Reuters: Peter Nicholls)
It is not clear how the divorce agreement will affect that lawsuit.
Publicly, both Pitt and Jolie have been extremely tight-lipped on everything surrounding their split, despite robust promotional tours and many media appearances for various projects.
Pitt said in a 2017 interview with GQ that he had had a drinking problem at the time of the plane incident and the split, but had since become sober and was going to therapy.Â
He has not defended his behaviour on the family flight.
Jolie has also declined to make any public statements about the family issues or the divorce, though she has sought a broader examination and airing of his behaviour by the courts in both the divorce and winery cases.
Both Jolie and Pitt were among the most elite stars in film when they began dating in 2004, after co-starring as hitman-and-hitwoman spouses in Mr and Mrs Smith, and remained atop the Hollywood A-list throughout their coupling.Â
Jolie kept a less visible profile in the years since the divorce, though she directed several films and appeared in several more while trying to focus on raising the children.Â
She has very much returned to the Oscar conversation this year for her portrayal of the legendary soprano Maria Callas in "Maria."
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