There have been many love triangles during the history of time; probably the most famous being the one between Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. This particular triangle spawned the phrase “There were three people in this marriage; so it was a bit crowded,” which has been used time and time again ever since. However, our next scandal spawned the phrases “Team Jolie” and “Team Aniston”, and would encourage discussions and debate around the water-cooler for many years to come.
As Rachel Green in the hit show Friends, Jennifer Aniston was the darling of television when she met Brad Pitt, the star of Se7en (1995) and Interview with the Vampire (1994). The two started dating in 1998 and quickly became the talk of the world, especially when they decided to marry in July 2000 in a private Malibu ceremony. The ecstatic couple spurned lucrative offers from magazines, and instead released a black-and-white photo of themselves in aid of charity. The couple were photographed looking happy on their big day, with Jen wearing a white dress, veil and her hair hanging loose, while Brad dressed in a smart suit and tie.
Mr and Mrs Pitt were the perfect Hollywood couple and even appeared in an episode of Friends together, which saw them going head-to-head in a showdown over old high-school grievances including Pitt’s “I hate Rachel” club and made-up rumours of Rachel being an hermaphrodite cheerleader from Long Island. The episode was a huge hit with fans and cemented their status as one of the happiest couples in show business.
Unfortunately, their marriage seemed to come to an abrupt halt after Pitt was contracted to work with Angelina Jolie on the film Mr & Mrs Smith (2005). The two actors fell for each other, and while both still deny having a full fling on set, there can be no doubt that there was a huge attraction there. Of course, stories from the set were quick to leak out into “real life” and rumours swirled around for quite some time about whether or not Pitt was going to leave his wife. The curious public didn’t have to wait long, however, as while the two tried to hold things together for a time, it soon became clear that the marriage was just not working and their separation was announced on 6 January 2005.
Very quickly stories started to circulate that Pitt was in love with Angelina Jolie and the whole world seemed to be on either Team Jolie or Team Aniston; there was simply no room for being “on the fence”. To some, Angelina was seen as the brazen woman in the middle, the home-wrecker who had torn the couple apart. In reality, however, while the relationship with Jolie was certainly a symptom that something was wrong in the Aniston/Pitt partnership, she doesn’t seem to have been the cause of the split. Instead, there may have been problems for some time before she came on the scene, with Pitt’s friends declaring that it was actually Aniston’s apprehension about having children that had caused the break-up. For her part, Jennifer herself later claimed that there was a “sensitivity chip” missing from her estranged husband.
The pair eventually divorced on 2 October 2005 and Jennifer went on to make The Break-up with actor Vince Vaughn. The film centred on a couple who were – as the title indicates – breaking up. Producers were loath to offer Jennifer the part, knowing what she had just been through, but she pressed ahead anyway. “What a great way to exorcise [the divorce]” she later declared.
During the filming, Jennifer developed a close friendship and rumoured romance with co-star Vince Vaughn, while Pitt was finally free to enter into an intense relationship with Angelina Jolie. Jolie had previously adopted a son, Maddox, and was in the process of adopting a daughter, Zahara, at the time, and very quietly Pitt went on to adopt the children, too. Then although the pair continued to remain silent about their relationship, it soon became impossible to deny they were anything but good friends when in May 2006, Jolie gave birth to their first biological child, a daughter they called Shiloh.
By now any hopes of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt reconciling were firmly out of the window, but the media were still obsessed with what the two thought of each other, and why the marriage had gone disastrously wrong. For their part, the couple have always remained largely tight-lipped about each other, and still claim to be on a relatively friendly basis. So cordial, in fact, that rumours have developed over the years of secret meetings, letters and phone calls – none of which have ever been proved, although in the February 2009 issue of W Magazine, Pitt did admit that the two check in with each other occasionally. “She was a big part of my life, and me hers,” he said.
After the initial adoption of Maddox and Zahara, and then the later birth of Shiloh, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie went on to have three more children: Pax was adopted in 2007 and then biological twins Knox and Vivienne were born in 2008. No children have appeared since then, though the couple have not ruled out the possibility. Pitt relayed his feelings on fatherhood at the Venice Film Festival by describing it as the most fun and the “biggest pain in the ass” that he had ever experienced in his life. “I love it and can’t recommend it highly enough,” he told reporters shortly before the arrival of his last two children.
Both Jolie and Pitt have admitted that their children are desperate for them to marry, and in the summer of 2012 it was rumoured that they were about to tie the knot in a French chateau. That never happened – or if it did, it remains the best-kept secret in show business. Then in December of the same year it was once again claimed that they had secretly married over the Christmas period. But in the face of rumours and hearsay, as of March 2013 the two remain happily unmarried, although some sources predict they won’t remain that way for long.
As for Jennifer Aniston, she has enjoyed a great deal of film success with hits such as the real-life story of Marley and Me, in which she played a wife juggling three children and a disobedient canine. She may soon be able to play this role in her personal life, too, as in August 2012 it was announced that she was engaged to actor Justin Theroux, who she had been dating for the past year. Aniston has said she is extremely happy with her new fiancé and is very much looking forward to the future. It is not yet known when the wedding will take place, but you can be sure that if it is anywhere near the time when her former husband gets married, the comparisons will be set to run and run.