As of 10 June, it is 20 years since the film that divided Hollywood first hit cinemas. Before Mr & Mrs Smith, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were the golden couple of the entertainment industry, with Pitt the pin up heartthrob and Aniston, ‘Rachel from Friends’, ever the girl next door. Angelina Jolie, meanwhile, was a maverick action film star who was covered in tattoos, married to Billy Bob Thornton who was 20 years her senior, and famously kissed her own brother on stage at the Oscars.
It's almost impossible to cast your mind back to those days given how Mr & Mrs Smith reshaped the cultural landscape. Not because of its gripping action sequences or its plot – it’s actually a distinctly average film with a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – but because it marked the end of Pitt and Aniston’s marriage and the start of ‘Brangelina’.
Tabloid fodder at its finest, what was already an uncomfortable situation for the three actors was made worse by the frenzied rivalry whipped up by the media. ‘Team Aniston’ and ‘Team Jolie’ t-shirts swept the nation and were famously worn famous faces like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, tell-all interviews were offered and accepted on both sides, and an unrelenting stream of commentary followed – and in many ways still does.
Despite rumours that Pitt and Jolie had an affair on the set of the film, they have always maintained that their relationship did not start until after Aniston filed for divorce in January 2005. They did, however, later admit that they developed feelings for each other while working together. ‘It took until the end of the shoot for us, I think, to realise that it might mean something more than we’d earlier allowed ourselves to believe,’ Jolie told The New York Post in 2006. ‘And both knowing that the reality of that was a big thing, something that was going to take a lot of serious consideration.’
When Aniston announced that she and Pitt were separating after five years of marriage, she cited irreconcilable differences and said, ‘our separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by the tabloid media’ and that they remained ‘committed and caring friends’.
Of course, all that stood to change, at least in the court of public opinion, when Pitt and Jolie’s romance was confirmed. First via viral pictures of them holidaying together in Kenya and then in July 2005 through their extensive W magazine spread titled, ‘Domestic Bliss’. Something that, understandably, riled up Team Aniston. The following September, Aniston spoke out about her divorce for the first time, telling Vanity Fair: ‘There are many stages of grief. It’s sad, something coming to an end. It cracks you open.’ Later adding, ‘I would much rather everyone move on. I am not defined by this relationship. I am not defined by the part [the media is] making me play in the triangle.’
In January 2006, Jolie and Pitt announced they were expecting a child together, six months after they adopted their daughter Zahara from Ethiopia. Four more children followed to form a total of six and all were present when the couple got married at their co-owned French Estate, Chateau Miraval, in 2014.
However, the legacy of this power couple has been tarnished for almost a decade. In 2016, two years after their wedding, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt citing irreconcilable differences after a fateful private plane journey from France to LA.
In 2022, Jolie filed court papers accusing Pitt of drunkenly attacking her and their children during the aforementioned flight, prompting her to file for divorce. She alleges that he grabbed her by the head and verbally abused and poured alcohol on his family during the journey. Pitt has always denied the allegations and was cleared of wrongdoing following an FBI investigation at the time.
Nevertheless, the separation marked the start of an eight-year divorce battle that saw Pitt and Jolie in disputes over both the custody of their minor children and their French winery. The latter is still ongoing. Pitt and Jolie are finally divorced, but they are set to meet each other in court next year. They will both be subjected to depositions that may reveal additional personal details about their marriage, including the alleged ‘years of abuse’ Jolie claims Pitt subjected her to. The trial will also settle the rightful ownership of Jolie’s 50% shares of Chateau Miraval, which Jolie sold shortly after filing for divorce. Pitt claims the sale was carried out without permission while Jolie alleges that she attempted to sell her shares to Pitt in the first instance but refused after he asked her to sign a $8.5m NDA to cover up said ‘years of abuse’.
As for the state of their once picture-perfect family, it similarly hangs in the balance. All six of Pitt and Jolie’s children seem to have taken a marked stance with their mother, with several of them dropping ‘Pitt’ from their surnames. In 2023, their son Pax took to Instagram on Father’s Day to share his thoughts about the F1 actor. ‘You will never understand the damage you have done to my family because you are incapable of doing so,’ he wrote. ‘You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell. […] The truth will come to light someday.’
Even so, anyone following the saga would assume Pitt and Jolie are at least somewhat relieved to no longer be legally married. However, in a recent interview with GQ to promote his upcoming film F1, which is out on 27 June, Pitt seemed indifferent. ‘No, I don’t think it was that major of a thing,’ he responded when asked if he was relieved that the divorce was behind him. ‘Just something coming to fruition, legally.’
The Jolie-Pitt clan’s dirty laundry is set to air in court in 2026, but Jolie’s lawyers have insisted she never wanted their case to go to trial. ‘Angelina never wanted any of this,’ her attorney Paul Murphy said after a judge ruled that Pitt must turn over documents and communications that Jolie claims will prove he covered up alleged domestic violence. ‘She never pressed charges, she left all their properties, and she is the one who tried to sell him the business in the first place. […] She wants this to end, the children want this to end, and Mr. Pitt should focus on healing their family, not pursuing lawsuits.’
The legacy of Mr & Mrs Smith has, in many ways, returned to its origins – a toxic, highly-publicised feud with real lives and relationships at the centre. Sadly, this is a story that has not ended well for anyone. As for the ‘truth’, all eyes will be on the courtroom next year.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across entertainment, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things pop culture for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow with equal respect).