Angelina Jolie Files for Divorce From Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
Angelina Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt separated just five days ago, according to the divorce filing obtained by PEOPLE.
Jolie filed from divorced from the 52-year-old actor on Monday, after two years of marriage.
Jolie, 41, cited irreconcilable differences for their split. She asked for physical custody of the couple’s shared six children – Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Vivienne, and Knox – asking for Pitt to be granted visitation.
She did not request child or spousal support.
The documents state that the couple have been separated since September 15.
Brad Pitt, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, Jane Pitt, and William Pitt at the premiere of ‘Unbroken’ on December 15, 2014. (Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
In a statement to PEOPLE Pitt said, “I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the wellbeing of our kids. I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time.”
“The divorce is a complete shock,” a source close to the couple told PEOPLE. “They have definitely spent more time apart this year, but it’s still a shock. They just celebrated their wedding anniversary together.”
The couple was last spotted together in mid-July, just ahead of their second wedding anniversary – though the insider told PEOPLE Pitt has escaped to France “many time this year because they were fighting.”
They sometimes clashed over issues of raising their children, the source says.
“They always had disagreements when it came to disciplining the kids,” according to the source. “With all the kids, it did tend to get chaotic many times."
Pitt "has always been stricter,” the source adds – claiming The Big Short-star “wanted the kids to have more structure” and “was more about having rules.” While the source said he never used any kind of physical discipline, Pitt was known to “get frustrated sometimes and yell at the kids.”
That parenting style was different than Jolie’s.
“Angelina always had a more relaxed attitude when it came to the kids. She definitely never yells,” according to the source.
Just last month, sources told PEOPLE that the couple were “as happy as ever.”
“They really are great,” the source said. “They’re really busy, but happy. The kids are getting so big! It’s hard to believe."
Pitt and Jolie first met on the 2003 set of their 2005 thriller Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and began publicly dating a few years later – after the actor’s split from then-wife Jennifer Aniston.
"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 Pitt told Vogue in 2006. “I think a few months in I realized, 'God, I can’t wait to get to work.’ … Anything we had to do with each other, we just found a lot of joy in it together and a lot of real teamwork. We just became kind of a pair."
In May 2006, the couple welcomed their first child together, daughter Shiloh, now 10. She joined Jolie Pitt’s adopted brood of Maddox, now 15, and Zahara, now 11.
In 2007, the couple adopted son Pax, now 12, from a Vietnamese orphanage.
The next year, twins Knox and Vivienne were born. Of their new family of eight, Jolie Pitt told PEOPLE at the time, "It is chaos, but we are managing it and having a wonderful time.”
After nearly seven years together, Pitt proposed in 2012, but it would be two years before the pair married at the family’s French estate.
