A family affair as Brad and Angie wed

Published Aug 29, 2014

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Los Angeles - Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Hollywood's first couple, married in France over the weekend following a two-year engagement, ending nearly a decade of fevered tabloid speculation over whether “Brangelina” would ever tie the knot.

Pitt, 50, and Jolie, 39, were wed on Saturday in a small chapel at Chateau Miraval, the couple's estate in south-eastern France, in a civil ceremony, according to a statement provided by publicist Martin Torres on Thursday.

The couple - whose long-rumoured nuptials had been celebrity magazine and tabloid fodder and had sent reporters and photographers as far as India and Africa in search of possible “secret” ceremonies - wed much like they live: quietly and far removed from Hollywood's spotlight.

The power couple's six children, all under the age of 14, took part in the ceremony, the statement said.

The Maleficent star was walked down the aisle by eldest sons Maddox and Pax, while Zahara and Vivienne threw petals gathered from a garden. Shiloh and Knox were ring bearers.

“It was very much a family affair,” the statement said.

Jolie and Pitt, who had said they hoped to wed once same-sex marriage was legal throughout the United States, were married under California law by a judge who travelled to France for the ceremony.

Jolie's father, actor Jon Voight, told US TV entertainment programme Inside Edition “that's nice”, when informed about his daughter's wedding. Jolie and Voight were estranged for years but have reconciled.

Jolie and Pitt couple announced their engagement in April 2012, seven years after their relationship caught fire on the set of 2005 film Mr & Mrs Smith.

They will star in an upcoming film By The Sea, written and to be directed by Jolie, who will also co-produce the drama with Pitt.

Pitt has said they considered marriage because it meant a lot to their children.

As two of the most prominent and influential figures in the entertainment industry, Pitt and Jolie have taken on humanitarian causes as well as putting their muscle behind serious film.

Jolie, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2000 for Girl, Interrupted, was appointed as a special envoy for refugee issues in 2011 after a decade as a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Pitt, who co-produced the Oscar-winning drama 12 Years A Slave, started a foundation to help restore New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Jolie, who was previously married to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, has also become a voice for women's health issues. She underwent a double mastectomy last year in a preventative step prompted by her genetic disposition for breast cancer.

Pitt is divorced from actress Jennifer Aniston. - Reuters

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