12 years of Brangelina: From Mr & Mrs Smith to splitsville

Cinema still from the movie Mr & Mrs Smith starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. PHOTO: 20TH CENTURY FOX

After 12 years, Brangelina are no more. The end of the relationship between Hollywood actors Angelina Jolie, 41, and Brad Pitt, 52,who have weathered 12 years and six children together shocked the celebrity world this week. A look back at their years together:

January 2004: When the A-list movie celebrities met on the set of the romantic thriller Mr & Mrs Smith, Brad Pitt was a pretty boy and Angelina Jolie a wild child. He was still married to wholesome television star Jennifer Aniston. Jolie - replacing Nicole Kidman in the role of Mrs Smith - was a divorced mother of an adopted son, Maddox, having ended her marriage to actor Billy Bob Thornton in 2003.

January 2005: After a New Year beach vacation in Anguilla, Pitt and Aniston announced their separation.

March 2005: Aniston filed for divorce from Pitt. Speculation swirled about his affair.

April 2005: The rumours were confirmed when Pitt and Jolie were photographed on a beach in Kenya, playing with Maddox. Thus began Brangelina, one of the most controversial couplings in Hollywood history, as people took sides of "Team Aniston" or "Team Jolie".

Summer 2005: Brangelina refused to comment on their relationship, instead doing things like posing as a happy family in a 60-page spread in W magazine. "There's a sensitivity chip that's missing," Aniston told Vanity Fair magazine, after the photos were published.

When Jolie adopted a daughter, Zahara, from Ethiopia, it was made public that Pitt had accompanied her.

Winter 2005: Pitt filed to legally adopt Maddox and Zahara.

January 2006: Brangelina dropped the bombshell that not only were they officially a couple, but Jolie was pregnant with Pitt's baby.

May 2006: Jolie gave birth to a girl, Shiloh, in Namibia. The first pictures of Brangelina's first biological child reportedly went to People magazine and the British press for nearly US$8 million combined; the proceeds went to charity.

March 2007: The Jolie-Pitt clan expanded. The couple adopted another son, Pax, from Vietnam...

July 2008: ...and Jolie gave birth to twins, a girl, Vivienne, and a boy, Knox.

October 2008: Jolie drew a backlash when she told The New York Times she was excited about eventually showing Mr & Mrs Smith to the six children because "not a lot of people get to see a movie where their parents fell in love".

April 2012: The couple got engaged. Pitt told CBS News that they were receiving increased pressure from their children, who said, "Get Mommy a ring!"

May 2013: Jolie wrote a New York Times op-ed about deciding to have a double mastectomy after discovering she carried a gene that sharply increased her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers. "I am fortunate to have a partner, Brad Pitt, who is so loving and supportive," she wrote.

August 2014: Finally, the couple married in a ceremony before roughly 20 friends and family members in a Romanesque chapel on the grounds of Château Miraval, their estate in the South of France. Master tailor Luigi Massi of Atelier Versace made Jolie's wedding dress, incorporating designs from her children's drawings.

The couple sold the photographs of their wedding day to People and Hello! magazines for a reported US$5 million and contributed the payment to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

As their honeymoon, Jolie directed Pitt in the moody film By The Sea, about a married couple drifting apart. She told Vanity Fair: "A few friends asked if we were crazy."

Sept 7, 2016: Pitt was profiled for The New York Times by Man Booker-winning novelist Marlon James, who avoided inquiring about Jolie and the children. Pitt, who is cool and has rare books on fringe culture, "seems more like the Dude than a dad", James wrote.

Sept 19, 2016: Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt, seeking full physical custody of the children. "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."

Sources: Washington Post, NYTimes, Reuters

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