War of the Rosés: How did Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s divorce get so messy?

Once the most loved-up couple in Hollywood, borne like a phoenix from the ashes of Brad and Jennifer Aniston’s world-rocking break up, Brangelina has taken quite the tumble.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announced their split in 2016, just two years after they tied the knot in Miraval, south east France, where they also co-owned a successful vineyard. Since then, there’s been allegations of abuse, claims of forced NDAs, a revolving door of legal professionals and more than a little crying over spilt rosé.

In the latest court filings around the ongoing legal battle dubbed “War of the Rosés” Jolie’s lawyers allege that Pitt was abusive toward her prior to the 2016 plane incident that led to her leaving him and filing for divorce. Pitt is yet to comment, but it has complicated the now eight year-long case.

To make things all the more high profile, the film that brought the pair together, Mr & Mrs Smith, was recently remade starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, and aired on Prime in early 2024 — in the process taking minds back to its original on and off screen lovers.

From the couple that couldn’t keep their hands off each other to embittered exes, where did it all go so wrong for Brad and Ange?

How it all began

First, let’s go way back. The two actors first met on the set of action comedy Mr & Mrs Smith in 2004. Chemistry between the pair — playing a married couple who both turned out to be assassins hired to kill the other — was said to be palpable. At the time, Brad was married to Jennifer Aniston, making him one half of the most adored celebrity couple. Brad and Jen’s Malibu wedding in 2000 was no small affair (if you’ll pardon the phrasing), it reportedly cost $1 million and was attended by the entire cast of Friends, including David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry, and Matt LeBlanc. He was the biggest movie star in the world and she was the Rachel Green. People from all across the world were obsessed and ate up every available inside detail on the pair’s relationship. Like, for instance, their wedding vows: he promised to split the thermostat bill and Jen pledged to always make Brad his favourite banana milkshake.

Their approach to marriage was charmingly liberal. “Neither of us wants to be the spokesman for a happy marriage, for coupledom,” Brad told Vanity Fair. “I’ll tell you what I despise: this two-becomes-one thing where you lose your individuality. We don’t cage each other with this pressure of happily ever after. You figure it out as you go along. We feel it out, rather than setting policies and rules.”

Adding: “Jen and I always made a pact; that we’ll see where this thing is going. I’m not sure it really is in our nature to be with someone for the rest of our lives, just because you made this pact. You keep going as long as you keep growing. When that dies, we do. We still have that friendship; we still have a good laugh, which can go in and out depending on the dynamics and outside influences. It’s complicated, but that’s what keeps it interesting.”

Enter Angelina, who came with a wild image (kissing her brother on the lips at the Oscars, reportedly wearing a vial of her partner’s blood around her neck, etc) and described herself as having had a ‘dark and dangerous’ youth. She was twice divorced when she met Brad — having been hitched first to British actor Jonny Lee Miller, of Trainspotting fame, and then Billy Bob Thornton, aka Bad Santa and the sleazy American President from Love Actually. During her marriage to Billy Bob, the couple adopted a child, Maddox, from Cambodia in March 2002, but abruptly separated three months later.

Speaking about her divorce, she told Vogue at the time: “It took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it's scary but... I think it can happen when you get involved and you don't know yourself yet."

Mr & Mrs Smith

After seven years together, and mid-way through the filming of Mr & Mrs Smith, Brad and Jennifer announced their separation on January 7, 2005. A tidal wave speculation was unleashed. Both the media and the general public whipped up a frenzied Team Jen and Team Angelina rivalry, with brands even selling t-shirts for people wanting to pledge their allegiance.

Angelina was pitched as the mistress, but both have always strenuously denied their relationship started as an affair. "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive,” Angelina said. “I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife."

Not long after their divorce, Jen gave a candid interview to Vanity Fair, saying “I’m not interested in taking public potshots. It’s not my concern anymore. What happened to him after the separation—it’s his life now. I’ve made a conscious effort not to add to the toxicity of this situation. I haven’t retaliated. I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t have a halo that I’m polishing here; everyone has their personal thoughts. But I would much rather everyone move on. I am not defined by this relationship. I am not defined by the part they’re making me play in the triangle. It’s maddening to me...”

‘Rainbow’ family

In January 2006, Angelina confirmed to People that she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. It was the first time she’d publicly acknowledged their relationship. The pair then started assembling their ‘rainbow’ family, as she called it, at pace. That year, Brad became the adoptive father of Maddox and Angelina’s second child, Zahara. Both of the children's surnames were changed from "Jolie" to "Jolie-Pitt". Angelina gave birth to daughter Shiloh Nouvel in Namibia, in May 2006. In the spring of the next year, Angelina adopted three-year-old Pax Thien from an orphanage in Vietnam and Brad adopted Pax in the United States about a year later.

“We spent a lot of time contemplating and thinking and talking about what we both wanted in life and realized that we wanted very, very similar things,” Angelina said to Vogue in 2007. “And then we just continued to take time. We remained very, very good friends—with this realization—for a long time. And then life developed in a way where we could be together, where it felt like something we would do, we should do." At the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, Angelina confirmed that she was expecting twins, and Knox Léon and daughter Vivienne Marcheline were born in July that year.

A few years later, speaking to The Telegraph, Jolie said: "I am very lucky with Brad. He is a real gentleman, but he is also a real man's man. He's got the wonderful balance of being an extraordinary, great, loving father, a very, very intelligent man and physically he's a real man." Meanwhile, Brad told Esquire in mid 2013: “I have very few friends. I have a handful of close friends and I have my family and I haven't known life to be any happier. I'm making things. I just haven't known life to be any happier."

They got married after ten years together with an intimate ceremony at the chapel of their French home and vineyard, Château Miraval, in southeast France. Angelina wore Versace with a veil that the couples’ children had doodled all over. "It does feel different. It feels nice to be husband and wife,” Angelina told Vanity Fair at the time.

The beginning of the end

Two years later and it was over.

In September 2016, Angelina filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The FBI and the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services then confirmed they were investigating Brad for alleged child abuse following an incident on the family’s private jet. The actor was accused by an anonymous person of getting physical with one of his children.

According to TMZ at the time, “the details of precisely what happened” were “murky.” But it was reported that Maddox had stepped in to verbally stand up for his mother during a fight with Brad — and that the latter lost his temper. A source close to Brad told People he was “was drunk, and there was an argument between him and Angelina,” said the source. “There was a parent-child argument which was not handled in the right way and escalated more than it should have.” Brad has since been cleared of all allegations.

The actor hasn’t made any comment about the allegations but has been open about his drinking and drug use. In a May 2017 GQ interview, Brad revealed he had quit drinking and smoking cannabis. “I can't remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn't boozing or had a spliff, or something. And I'm running from feelings. I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year [...] I was boozing too much,” Brad told the magazine. “It's just become a problem. You either deny them all of your life or you answer them and evolve.”

Divorce drama and abuse allegations

Brangelina had been wrangling over the split through legal proceedings in California privately and quietly, but in February 2017, Angelina spoke out about the divorce for the first time saying "we will get through this time and hopefully be a stronger family for it”.

According to court documents, Brad had been failing to give her “meaningful support” financially since the split. Brad countered that he had actually loaned her $8 million plus $1.3 million for bills. The next year it was revealed that Angelina had given Brad access to the children — but they were still working towards a full settlement.

In an interview with Vogue in 2021, Angelina said she split from Brad for the “wellbeing” of her family. “It was the right decision,” she said. “I continue to focus on their healing. Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds. In fact, they are six very brave, very strong young people.”

In December 2020, court proceedings had begun in Los Angeles over child custody for the five youngest children, as Maddox was already over 18 and therefore an adult in the eyes of the law. Pax is now 20, while Zahara is 19, Shiloh, 17 and twins Vivienne and Knox are 15. Brad was granted joint custody of his children with Angelina.

A source close to the case told PA the judge’s ruling would “significantly increase” Oscar-winner Brad’s time with the children. The decision is said to have been based on “extensive testimony” from those involved with the case, including professionals who had spent time with the children.

It marked a major breakthrough for the couple, but as they say: two steps forward, three steps back.

The big vineyard dispute

It took nearly seven years and millions in legal fees to get to the point that the pair began splitting up their combined assets, including the French vineyard and estate, Chateau Miraval, they bought together for $60 million. In an extra twist, Brad sued his ex-wife for, according to the lawsuit, selling her stake in their co-owned vineyard to a Luxembourg-based spirits manufacturer controlled by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler without his knowledge.

Court papers submitted by Brad alleged that Angelina intentionally “sought to inflict harm on” him by selling her stake in the business. He said they had agreed to never sell their respective interests without the other’s consent. He also claimed the wine company grew “into a multimillion-dollar global business and one of the world’s most highly regarded producers of rosé wine” through his work and that Jolie had contributed “nothing to Miraval’s success.”

In a revised complaint filed in summer 2023, the Fight Club actor insisted he had first refusal on his ex-wife's share of their idyllic winery, situated in Correns, in the South of France. Pitt’s later submitted legal papers said: “As will be demonstrated at trial, Jolie’s actions were unlawful, severely and intentionally damaging Pitt and unjustly enriching herself.” Jolie denied these allegations.

But the dispute, which was dubbed the “War of the Rosés”, raged on. Just a week after Pitt’s revised complaint was filed, Vanity Fair dropped the bombshell accusation that talks about the vineyard sale broke down after Pitt attempted to persuade Jolie into signing an NDA — which would prevent her from speaking about the infamous 2016 private jet incident — in return for her being able to sell her stake.

The magazine spoke to the couple's former head of security, real estate brokers and others with intimate knowledge of the couple's time in the south of France to attain this information, but representatives for Pitt claimed that it was actually Jolie who first broached the idea of an NDA. They also claimed that the NDA was purely related to the sale of the winery, “to ensure the seller doesn’t damage the value of the asset after being paid for it.”

The Vanity Fair piece claimed to shed a little more light on the private jet incident as well, with the couple’s ex-head of security telling Vanity Fair that Pitt was “drinking quite a bit” at the time it happened. Another source claimed: “Brad was drinking, and the confrontation got out of hand. He was absolutely wrong in how he behaved but immediately apologised and acknowledged that he had crossed a line. He will always regret [it], and right away took steps to address this and try to make amends.” Pitt apparently quit drinking immediately after the incident. Pitt’s lawyer said: “Thankfully, the various public authorities the other side has tried to use against him [Brad Pitt] over the past six years have made their own independent decisions. Brad will continue to respond in court as he has consistently done.”

And to top it all off, the Vanity Fair article ended by noting that since September 2016, nobody from either Pitt or Jolie’s family have returned to stay at the French property.

‘War of the Rosé’ drags on

In July 2023, Jolie’s legal team accused Brad Pitt of acting like a “petulant child” over the sale of her stake, with claims that Pitt has engaged in a “blatant money grab,” and has spent more time on vanity projects around the site, like building a recording studio and renovating the swimming pool, than on the vineyard and winemaking process. The filing alleges that Pitt “deals in illusions, not dirt and grapes.”

“During the years that he allegedly 'built' the business,” the filing reads, “he filmed and appeared in dozens of movies, not to mention making countless promotional appearances, jetting-setting around the world for movie premieres, and attending Hollywood parties.

“While he no doubt visited the vineyards to admire the work of the French laborers who actually made the business successful,” it continues, “Pitt is no vigneron.”

“Pitt wasted the company’s assets, spending millions on vanity projects, including more than $1 million on swimming pool renovations, building and rebuilding a staircase four times, and spending millions to restore a recording studio.”

Pitt did not respond to these claims. Legal documents were then obtained by TMZ last Autumn which said that Brad and Angelina had agreed to mediation, rather than settling in court, regarding their long-standing vineyard dispute. According to Daily Mail, Jolie has reportedly said she was willing to take part in a settlement conference, while Pitt appointed a ‘provisional administrator’ in a bid to hopefully help negotiations.

The fierce legal teams

As you may expect in a situation like this, both Brad and Angelina are represented by highly esteemed LA-based divorce lawyers, who they’ve been working with for years. But it took a while to get here — both Brad and Ange have made changes to the legal teams they initially hired back when the divorce proceedings first began. Brad was initially working with celebrity specialist lawyer Lance Spiegel, who has represented the likes of Charlie Sheen, Michael Jackson, Heather Locklear and Eva Longoria. Angelina was originally represented by lawyer-to-the-stars Laura Wasser, who previously worked with Britney Spears and Kim Kardashian during their divorces.

Jolie then ditched Wasser for another lawyer, Samantha Bley Dejean, in 2018, because she felt Dejean had more experience in the “protection of children.” At the time, Jolie's spokesperson, Mindy Nyby, told People: “Angelina has decided to change counsel to Samantha Bley Dejean, as Samantha's expertise is the protection and best interest of children. Angelina appreciates Laura’s cooperation in transitioning the case of the past several weeks."

For his part, Pitt has transitioned to primarily using the legal expertise of Anne C Kiley (it’s unclear if Spiegel is still involved, though he was initially Pitt’s primary counsel). Kiley even addressed the private jet incident in a statement to The Times in 2022 saying: “Brad has owned everything he’s responsible for from day one — unlike the other side — but he’s not going to own anything he didn’t do. He has been on the receiving end of every type of personal attack and misrepresentation.”

There was also beef between Pitt and Jolie’s lawyers when Jolie’s team allegedly attempted to subpoena Pitt at the 2022 SAG awards (where a legal team demands someone’s presence in court by handing them legal papers) à la Olivia Wilde, only to find that Pitt wasn’t present. Representatives of Jolie and Pitt have never responded to these subpoena claims.

Viral family drama

Pax also became closely linked to the messy divorce battle due to resurfaced comments in late 2023 about Pitt from Father's Day 2020. "Happy Father’s Day to this world class a**hole," he wrote on Instagram under a photo of Pitt receiving an Oscar, seen by MailOnline. "You time and time again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person.

"You have no consideration or empathy toward your four youngest children who tremble in fear when in your presence," MailOnline reports the private post as saying. "You will never understand the damage you have done to my family because you are incapable of doing so.

"You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell. You may tell yourself and the world whatever you want, but the truth will come to light someday. So, Happy Father’s Day, you f*****g awful human being!!!”

Pitt did not publicly respond to his son's comments, but was cleared of all allegations of abuse. The actor also made a concerted effort to be seen to be bettering himself — he began a public wellness journey, marked by his cashmere company, gender-fluid skincare line, sobriety and foray into sculpture work.

Jolie on the other hand eluded to a difficult past few years in an interview with Vogue in 2023, where she said that her children “saved” her. “Having children saved me and taught me to be in this world differently,” she told the publication.

She is currently based in Los Angeles (at the former home of Hollywood legend Cecil B DeMille which she bought for $25 million), but appears keen to eventually move away. “I would love to live abroad and will do so as soon as [all of] my children are 18,” she told Harper's Bazaar in 2019. “Right now I'm having to base where their father chooses to live.”

The latest

In a new court filing as part of the ongoing battle over Château Miraval, Jolie has now alleged that Pitt was abusive toward her prior to the 2016 plane incident that led her to filing for divorce.

The actress's legal team filed a motion asking to release communications they claim would prove that Brad wouldn’t allow her to sell her share of the winery to him unless she agreed to a "more onerous" and "expansive" NDA. The topic of the NDA first caused a back and forth last year in court and now it’s rearing its head again with new allegations coming to light.

The lawyer’s claim that, "While Pitt's history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him."

Pitt hasn’t commented in response as yet, though a source reportedly close to him told PEOPLE,"This is a pattern of behaviour — whenever there is a decision that goes against the other side they consistently choose to introduce misleading, inaccurate and/or irrelevant information as a distraction.”

Though conversely, Jolie's lawyers claim that she "never pressed charges as she believed the best course was for Pitt to accept responsibility and help the family recover from the post-traumatic stress he caused."

Her attorney Paul Murphy said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE earlier this week, "Mr. Pitt refused to purchase Ms. Jolie’s interest when she would not be silenced by his NDA. By refusing to buy her interest but then suing her, Mr. Pitt put directly at issue why that NDA was so important to him and what he hoped it would bury: his abuse of Ms. Jolie and their family. After eight months of delays, this motion asks the Court to force Mr. Pitt to finally produce that evidence."

The team claim that Jolie’s sealed filing which includes emails, summaries of the family’s expected testimony and other evidence, caused Pitt to worry it would become public, meaning that they feel he wanted to "contractually bind” her to staying silent about his "personal misconduct, whether related to Miraval or not."

It remains to be seen if the motion will lead to a trial.