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Two blacked-out limousines swish to a halt outside a modest three-bedroom house on the flats of Beverly Hills. Paint peeling from the walls, rubbish bins left outside on the street… it is the last place on Earth you’d expect to see two of the biggest stars on the planet. From one car emerges Angelina Jolie, her face devoid of make-up, long hair pulled back into a severe ponytail. Moments later, her estranged husband Brad Pitt steps out of the second vehicle and hurries quickly up the tarmac drive.
It was then, just seven weeks ago, that ‘Brangelina’, as the world has come to know Hollywood’s the most famous couple, stood face-to-face for the first time in ten months. ‘Brad took the first step forward,’ says the couple’s biographer Ian Halperin. ‘Then they collapsed into each other’s arms.’ The stars, safely away from prying eyes at the home of a friend, then went inside for an emotional heart-to-heart that put aside the months of acrimony and mud-slinging that destroyed the fairytale image of the couple who fell passionately in love on the set of the 2005 film Mr & Mrs Smith. ‘There were a lot of tears,’ Halperin adds. ‘Nothing was left on the table. They had it out, right there and then in this very modest house.
In that moment they decided to make a fresh start. It was a ‘come to Jesus meeting’ that marked the beginning of a new phase in their relationship.’ When the couple split last September amid toxic allegations of drink, drugs and a mid-air altercation between Pitt and their teenage son Maddox – which resulted in brief investigations by the FBI and social services – the rift in their relationship seemed as final as it was sudden.
But the ‘tough love’ meeting arranged by the couple’s divorce negotiator gave them a chance to talk in the presence of a ‘referee’ who helped them cut through the acrimony and recrimination. Their conclusion was that, like a latter-day Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, they still loved each other and wanted to try again. Today, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that they are, in fact, working to ‘consciously re-couple’ and have undergone intensive rehab and spiritual counselling sessions in an effort to start anew. Together with their six children, three biological and three adopted, ‘Brangelina’ have long been considered the most passionate – and lucrative – showbusiness couple since Burton and Taylor, whose tempestuous relationship famously resulted in two marriages and two divorces in the 1960s and 1970s. Indeed, there are remarkable parallels.
When the Brangelina marriage imploded spectacularly a year ago, few thought it could recover. ‘Angie was very, very angry about the incident on the private plane between Brad and Maddox,’ says Halperin, whose new documentary, Broken: The Incredible Story Of Brangelina, will be broadcast in the UK later this year. ‘She threw everything she had at him ‘It was toxic. I’ve spoken to many people around them, friends and family, and no one could see how they could possibly recover. But both of them realise they are happier together than apart. Once they cleared the air between them, things started to improve.
Today, they are both feeling very positive. Angelina sees them as very much the new Burton and Taylor. They can’t live together but they can’t live apart. She has worked hard on herself since the plane incident, and so has Brad. They are still in love with each other.’ Indeed, the couple have even joked they are ‘consciously re-coupling’, a tongue-in-cheek reference to Gwyneth Paltrow’s famous and much ridiculed comment when she and Coldplay singer Chris Martin split in 2014 that they were ‘consciously uncoupling’.
Halperin says sources within the Brangelina camp have even told him the divorce may still go ahead, but that ‘a piece of paper’ means little to the couple. ‘Angie believes everything started to go wrong after they tied the knot. Their relationship shifted, it became boring. Brad’s drinking escalated. They both had heavy work schedules and they were constantly travelling around as a family. Tensions grew. They both view divorce as not the worst thing that can happen. It’s only a piece of paper and they feel once the divorce is done, they have a clean sheet and can start their lives anew.’ Indeed, the pair, who met when Pitt was still married to Friends star Jennifer Aniston, are ‘sexual dynamite’, according to one source. ‘That powerful sexual attraction never wavered. Even when they were having the worst fights, they would always kiss and make up.
They were happier before marriage. They only married because the kids begged them to. Now they realise what a mistake that was.’ Both sides have insisted on certain conditions for the relationship to be given a second chance. The constant presence of Jolie’s brother James Haven, whom she once kissed on the lips at the Oscars, is said by friends to have inflamed the marital discord ‘James was the ‘manny’. He was at the marital home 24/7 and became a de facto father figure to the kids which Brad, a traditionalist, didn’t take well to at all,’ explains Halperin, who spent five years working on his definitive bestselling 2010 biography of the couple, Brangelina: The Untold Story.
Also to be sidelined is Jolie’s ‘British coven’: Baroness Arminka Helic and Chloe Dalton, who both worked for ex-Tory leader William Hague and who became close to Jolie through her UN philanthropic work. ‘They are strong, powerful women who exercised undue influence on her,’ a friend of Pitt said. ‘Brad felt they meddled in the marriage.
‘The endless travelling is also going to stop. Brad already has unlimited access to the children and he has vowed to be a more active and present father. They both want to be there for their kids and, of course, the children want nothing more than to see their parents reunite,’ says Halperin. Both have made a fresh start geographically. Jolie recently moved into a £19 million mansion in Los Feliz, an area of Los Angeles more arty and less stuffy than the traditional environs of Beverly Hills, where the couple’s £15 million marital home sits empty. Jolie’s new home once belonged to one of the ‘founders’ of modern Hollywood, studio boss Cecil B. DeMille. It enjoys panoramic views over the city and boasts six bedrooms, ten bathrooms and 2.1 acres of gardens.
Pitt, meanwhile, is living in a relatively modest £1 million bungalow close to Jolie’s new digs and is said to be employing a ‘sober coach’ to be with him 24/7. Halperin says friends have seen a ‘radical shift’ in 42-year-old Jolie, a woman who has openly admitted suffering emotional trauma from her own parents’ divorce when she was just three years old, causing a ‘downward spiral’ into heroin addiction and eating disorders. Her mother Marcheline, to whom she was extremely close, died of cancer in 2007, and Angelina was estranged from her actor father Jon Voight for many years until, at the urging of Pitt, the pair reconciled 18 months ago.
Jolie was photographed with Voight last month taking nine-year-old daughter Vivienne to an art shop. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair magazine, the actress said she and the children – Maddox, 16, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 11, and nine-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne – had been going through ‘the hardest time’, adding: ‘We’re all trying our best to heal our family.’ Considering both are now the most eligible singles in Hollywood, neither appears to have actively sought out a new partner. Pitt, 53, was spotted cosying up to Sienna Miller at Glastonbury this summer but both denied any romance. ‘Brad hasn’t got eyes for anyone else and nor has Angie,’ says Halperin.
When they split, Jolie’s team set out to paint Pitt as a villain. ‘They ran a smear campaign,’ says one insider. Pitt was accused of having an affair with Allied co-star Marion Cotillard, an allegation both vehemently denied.
‘Angie’s anger has gone,’ says Halperin. ‘She’s starting to realise Brad’s a great dad and a great man. ‘The main issue in the marriage was Brad’s drinking and pot-smoking,’ he adds. ‘One of the things that has impressed Angie the most has been his commitment to getting clean and sober.’
In an interview with GQ magazine, a visibly shaken Pitt took ‘full responsibility’ for the marriage breakdown, blaming his dependence on alcohol and marijuana for the explosive row with 16-year-old Maddox. He cut a much slimmer figure as he started work in LA on a new film a few days ago, the £35 million sci-fi thriller Ad Astra. Jolie, meanwhile, has been paying thrice-weekly visits to a Beverly Hills ‘spiritual counsellor’.
‘The Angelina of today is in the best place ever,’ a source close to the star said. ‘She’s calm, less prone to erratic behaviour, and open to making the relationship with Brad her priority. She adores him and always has. She wants her children to have the stability she never had.’ The pair, who own other homes in France, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, New Orleans and New York, also realise the value of ‘brand Brangelina’ – conservatively valued at more than £100 million, according to Forbes magazine.
‘They have always lived the high life and their earning potential as a couple far exceeds their potential as individuals,’ adds Halperin. ‘Money isn’t high on the list of priorities for either of them, but avoiding a nasty fight over money is an added bonus. They’ve pretty much divided their marital assets evenly and are now back to being independent of each other financially.’ Whatever happens, both stars believe their story is not over. ‘Hollywood loves a ‘happily ever after’ ending,’ says Halperin. ‘And no one wants it more than Brad and Angie.’
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