The two very different lives of Brangelina 20 years on and why marrying the world’s sexiest man put Angelina off men

SHE was the Hollywood hellraiser with a string of dashing A-list ex-lovers – including Val Kilmer, Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.

From wearing a vial of Billy’s blood to tattooing Jonny’s name on her left arm, Angelina Jolie was the type of wildchild that fell hard and fast regularly — and didn’t care what the world thought about her.

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But 20 years ago she met Brad Pitt when they filmed comedy-thriller Mr & Mrs Smith — and something changed.

The couple instantly formed a relationship which looked from the outside like it was increasingly stable and full of love.

Brad took on Angelina’s adopted baby son from Cambodia, Maddox, now 23, and together they added to their “rainbow family” by adopting Zahara, now 20, from Ethiopia in 2006, and Pax, now 21, from Vietnam in 2007.

They later added biological kids Shiloh, now 19, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16, to their brood.

And they spent 12 happy years together as we swooned over two of the best-looking people in the world falling for each other like the love stories Hollywood is famous for.

But as with so many blockbusters, young love turned to bitter hatred and Angelina filed for divorce in September 2016 — citing “irreconcilable differences”.

Now, all these years since the 2005 movie that birthed “Brangelina”, there is little sign of the attention-loving anarchy that defined Angelina’s early showbiz years.

And certainly no sign of the wild love life she once enjoyed.

In fact, the beautiful star seems so resolutely single that pals are wondering if marrying the sexiest man in showbiz ultimately turned her off blokes altogether?

While Brad has bounced back bigger than ever — living with girlfriend Ines de Ramon and landing a slew of acting awards — these days Angelina seems to have become something of a recluse.

Except from a few dinner dates with chart star The Weeknd — where neither party confirmed a romance — she has remained resolutely single.

Even rumours she was dating Brit rapper Akala were quickly quashed.

Despite allegations of abuse from Angelina, Brad has emerged relatively unscathed from the ugly eight-year divorce battle that ensued between them, before they finalised their divorce in December last year.

Meanwhile Angelina, who turned 50 last week, is still recovering from the turmoil, and the general consensus is that she would be hard-pushed to ever date again.

Ange still has difficulty trusting, I don’t know if she’ll ever fully get over the trauma of her divorce.

Source close to Angelina

She may have been “lucky” enough to marry the world’s sexiest man but, in the wreckage of their acrimonious split and legal battles, she is now off men for good.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, sources tell us Angelina’s scars still remain, and are unlikely to ever heal.

“Ange still has difficulty trusting,” says an insider close to the mum of six. “I don’t know if she’ll ever fully get over the trauma of her divorce.”

Despite being together for years, it was not until 2014 that Brangelina married, at their French vineyard-estate Chateau Miraval.

She wore a veil emblazoned with doodles by their six children.

“It does feel different,” she told Vanity Fair shortly after. “It feels nice to be husband and wife.”

Yet two years later, the dream was over — its collapse sparked by a now infamous bust-up on a private jet.

Within a week of that, Angelina had filed for divorce, alleging in court papers that Brad, in a series of drunken rages, had attacked her and “choked one of the children and struck another in the face”.

Her lawyers later doubled down on the allegations, stating: “While Pitt’s history of abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s 2016 plane trip from France to LA, this marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well.”

Brad’s alleged actions on the jet were later investigated but he was not charged.

Nevertheless, he has since said that his heavy use of booze — which he later gave up — had a negative effect on his family life.

As for the years that followed, it was, until recently, just never-ending mud-slinging and legal attacks.

The former couple were locked in a bitter dispute for years surrounding the sale of their Miraval estate, as well as the matter of custody.

Even today, despite signing off their divorce, details over Miraval are still murky — though it is believed Brad still owns half of it, while Angelina sold her share.

As for the kids, four of the six are now legally adults so no longer qualify for custody — but they have evidently distanced themselves from Brad entirely.

It is believed Maddox has not spoken to him for years — while last year an old Instagram post by Pax resurfaced, in which he called his dad a “world-class a**hole”.

Zahara and Shiloh are also said to have ceased contact with Brad, as they both now go by the surname Jolie — Shiloh even filed legal ­­documents to make it official.

At this point, only Vivienne and Knox are believed to have any contact with their father.

But while Brad has seemingly lost the most from the Brangelina divorce, he looks to have had the biggest bounce-back.

Just look at where he stands today — at the age of 61, with the world still at his feet.

Despite all the drama and acrimony around his collapsed marriage, the star’s reputation seems untarnished.

I guess I’m in transition as a person. I feel a bit down these days. I don’t feel like I’ve been myself for a decade, in a way.

Angelina in 2023

Undoubtedly, there must be pain behind the scenes when it comes to his estrangement from the children, but he has played down any notion of enduring trauma.

Brad said as much in a recent interview with GQ magazine, claiming the divorce — after all the drawn-out wrangling — was not “that major of a thing”.

He added it was “just something coming to fruition, legally”.

Angelina has remained silent since signing on the dotted line, but she has previously hinted at the hold their fractured relationship has continued to have on her.

In 2023, she told Vogue magazine: “I guess I’m in transition as a person. I feel a bit down these days. I don’t feel like I’ve been myself for a decade, in a way.”

Her life has been solely focused around her kids, and they are — by all accounts — her greatest joy.

That has been clear enough whenever she has walked the red carpet in recent years, always flanked by at least one of her children.

Still, it is her prioritisation of motherhood that has also kept her undercover — and stuck in a city she hates.

Last year, she complained she will be forced to stay in LA until her twins turn 18.

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“I am here because I have to be here from a divorce,” she told The Hollywood Reporter, implying she has to stay in the same city as Brad while he has some custody rights over their younger children.

But she added: “As soon as they are 18, I’ll be able to leave. When you have a big family, you want them to have privacy, peace, safety.”

The subtext is that she neither feels privacy, nor peace, nor safety in her current surroundings.

As for her acting career, she has tentatively dipped her toes back in — but the actress has failed to match the blockbuster success she had in the Nineties and Noughties.

There’s a reason Angelina is still single, and it’s not for a lack of men lining up to date her

A source

We are told her performance as opera singer Maria Callas in last year’s biopic Maria was meant to be her big comeback — but while she won a Golden Globe nod, she was snubbed by the Oscars.

Rubbing salt into the wounds, Brad’s career continues to go from strength to strength.

In 2020, he won his long-awaited first acting Oscar for his role in Once Upon A Time . . . In Hollywood.

The gong for Best Supporting Actor proved Tinseltown held no grudge toward him amid his and Angelina’s war of words.

He has since seen box-office success with 2022 comedy-thriller Bullet Train, while critics who have had an early view of his new motor-racing movie F1 say it is the “perfect summer blockbuster”.

The optics are that, while ­­Angelina is stuck, Brad is soaring — and the same applies when it comes to romance.

For his part, Brad is now shacked up with jewellery-designer girlfriend Ines, 34, in his LA mansion.

Meanwhile, Angelina has not dated anyone publicly since splitting from Brad.

Ange is not in the same place as Brad since the divorce, even though she is over him. She’s focused on her children, finding peace and keeping her life private.

Source close to Angelina

She has prioritised her kids and career over romance.

It does not mean she is still not over Brad — just that she is unwilling to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.

“Ange is not in the same place as Brad since the divorce, even though she is over him,” our source said.

“She’s focused on her children, finding peace and keeping her life private.”

Another insider recently said: “There’s a reason Angelina is still single, and it’s not for a lack of men lining up to date her. She keeps them at a distance because she’s terrified of getting hurt again the way she did with Brad.”

This year is a pivotal one for Brad and Angelina.

All these years since they went head to head as lovers/enemies in Mr & Mrs Smith, reality has imitated art, the divorce is final and it is time for both of them to move on.

Brad may be several steps ahead of his ex but — with another movie, fashion industry drama Couture, in the pipeline, as well as her successful clothing brand Atelier Jolie — there is every hope Angelina will reclaim her place in the limelight.

For the moment, it seems she is biding her time and counting down the days until her twins turn 18, and she can make some big changes in life — including leaving La La Land.

In the meantime, we are told she is happy surrounding herself with a “very small circle of trusted friends” and keeping any dating options on the back-burner.

Her former wildchild self would likely be shocked by her lack of headline-grabbing antics, but Ange will now always choose peace.

Once a hellraiser, she then went through hell.

And as the trauma subsides, she is licking her wounds, biding her time — and rubbishing any suggestion that she needs a man to make things better.

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