Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt reach divorce settlement after 8 years

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have reached a divorce settlement, apparently ending one of the longest and most contentious divorces in Hollywood history.

Jolie and Pitt signed off on a default declaration filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, saying they have entered into a written agreement on their marital and property rights. The settlement was first reported by People magazine.

“More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt,” Jolie's attorney, James Simon, said in a statement. “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. This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago. Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.”

The filing says they give up the right to any future spousal financial support, but gives no other details. A judge will need to sign off on the agreement. An email late Monday night to Pitt's attorney seeking comment was not immediately answered.

Jolie, 49, and Pitt, 61, were among Hollywood’s most prominent pairings for 12 years, two of them as a married couple. The 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. The FBI and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services investigated Pitt's actions on the flight and deemed no action needed to be taken against him.

A judge in 2019 declared them divorced and single, but the splitting of assets and child custody needed to be separately settled.

Soon after, a private judge that the two had hired to handle the case reached a decision that included equal custody of their children, but Jolie filed to have him removed from the case over an unreported conflict of interest. An appeals court agreed, the judge was removed, and the couple had to start the process over.

During the long divorce fight, four of the couple's six children became adults, negating the need for a custody agreement for them. 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.

The couple's use of the private judge — an increasingly common move among splitting celebrities in recent years — has kept the proceedings and details of the divorce largely under wraps. 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.

Some elements of their disputes, however, have been revealed through a separate lawsuit filed by Pitt over Jolie's sale of her half of a French winery the two owned together. Pitt had wanted to buy her half of the winery, Chateau Miraval, and said she abandoned their negotiations and sold her part to the Tenute del Mondo wine group, a subsidiary of the Stoli Group. Pitt said it was a “vindictive” and “unlawful” move that should not have been made without his consent and ruined a private space that had been a second home.

Jolie's attorneys said that Pitt had demanded she sign a wide-ranging non-disclosure agreement about him as part of the proposed deal. 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 L.A. County officials, the initial judge in the case heard testimony on the allegations before deciding to give Pitt equal custody of the children.

The divorce agreement does not affect the winery lawsuit, where the legal battle between the two stars could continue.

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. He has not defended his behavior 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 behavior by the courts in both the divorce and winery cases.

Both 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. The daughter of Hollywood luminary Jon Voight and the star of “Maleficent” and “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” Jolie won an Oscar for her performance in 1999’s “Girl, Interrupted.”

Pitt, the star of “Fight Club” and “Inglourious Basterds,” thrived as both actor and producer after the split. He won his own Academy Award for 2019’s “Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood,” the crowning achievement in an awards season that some in media framed as a redemption and brought major public affection for him.

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. She has very much returned to the Oscar conversation this year for her portrayal of the legendary soprano Maria Callas in “Maria.”

Feature image from AP by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP