William Bradley "Brad" Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He became famous during the mid 1990s after having starring roles in several major Hollywood films, including Interview with the Vampire in 1994 and the thriller Se7en in 1995. Pitt was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award, both of which were for his role in Twelve Monkeys (1996). Pitt is repeatedly named as one of the most attractive men alive by magazines and is regarded as a member of the so-called Hollywood A-list. His former marriage to Jennifer Aniston and current relationship with Angelina Jolie have been widely covered in the world media. He is the father of four children, who have also received fevered media coverage. Particularly since his connection with Jolie, he has become heavily involved in social issues, both domestically and abroad. In 1998, Pitt met Friends actress Jennifer Aniston and married her at an enclosed wedding ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000. The couple were adamant that the ceremony would be a private affair and hired hundreds of guards to block out any attempts of invasion by the paparazzi. Only one media picture was ever released of the wedding. Not long after the wedding, Pitt sued Damiani International, the company which made the wedding ring he gave Jennifer Aniston, for selling replica "Brad and Jennifer" rings. According to Pitt, the ring was his design and was to be exclusive. Under the settlement reached in January 2002, Pitt would design jewelry for Damiani that Aniston would model in ads, and the company would stop selling the copies. Though their marriage was, for years, considered the rare Hollywood success, rumors of trouble began circulating, and the Pitts announced their separation on January 7, 2005. As Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston drew to a close, he and Angelina Jolie were involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal in which Jolie was often painted as the "other woman," largely due to their chemistry during the filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. While Jolie and Pitt both denied any claims of adultery, speculations continued to mount throughout 2004 and early 2005. In an interview with Ann Curry in June 2005, Jolie explained, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife." The concept of a "troubled marriage" (and arguably his own) inspired Pitt to cooperate with Steven Klein for a photoshoot in early 2005 entitled "Domestic Bliss" for W magazine. The spread showed Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a 1963 married couple with children. Pitt expressed the desire to tell a darker, truer tale, one that explored the "unidentifiable malaise" that often haunts a seemingly happy couple. "You don't know what's wrong," he remarked, "because the marriage is everything you signed up for."
Aniston filed for a divorce on March 25 the same year. The divorce was finalized on October 2, 2005.
