Everything Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt Have Said About Their Relationship, Divorce

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Everything Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt Have Said About Their Relationship, Divorce

Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were once Hollywood’s most beloved couple. Though it’s been more than a decade — and a second divorce for both the Friends alum and the Troy actor— people often still wonder about them getting back together. Fans’ emotions were sent into overdrive after Pitt attended Aniston’s 50th birthday bash in February 2018 at Sunset Towers in West Hollywood. “Jen spoke to Brad briefly. At one point she hugged him and thanked him for coming,” an insider explained to Us Weekly at the time. Though some partygoers “were surprised to see Brad there and were making a big deal of it,” the source noted that it “didn’t seem like that big of a deal to Jen.” The source added: “The invite went out to a ton of people and he accepted. She was happy he was there, but that was it. She was busy making the rounds and excited to see so many people near and dear to her.” [jwplayer eEZHyqXD-zhNYySv2] Aniston and Pitt — who split in October 2005 after five years of marriage — are rumored to have rekindled their friendship in the wake of the Fight Club actor’s split from Angelina Jolie in 2016. That same year, Pitt reached out to Aniston following the death of her mother, Nancy Dow. “Brad contacted Jen after her mom died, and she was touched that he knew what a difficult time it was,” an insider told Us of the support. Pitt and Jolie reached a custody agreement in late 2018 after a legal battle for their six kids: Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne. Aniston, meanwhile, was married to Justin Theroux for nearly three years before calling it quits on their relationship in February 2018. Scroll down to read everything Aniston and Pitt have said about their past relationship and split.

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On How She Felt Before They Parted Ways

Aniston told Diane Sawyer during a January 2004 interview that she felt Pitt was the one for her during their first date. "It was weird," she said reflecting on the date. "That was a really easy evening. It was really fun."

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On Having Little Aniston-Pitt’s

The Friends alum talked of starting a family during a February 2004 interview with The Guardian. "It's time. It's time. You know, I think you can work with a baby, I think you can work pregnant, I think you can do all of it,” Aniston said at the time. “So I'm just truly looking forward to slowing down."

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On the Breakup

The couple announced their split in January 2005 in a joint statement that read: “We would like to announce that after seven years together we have decided to formally separate. For those who follow these sorts of things, we would like to explain that our separation is not the result of any speculation reported by the tabloid media. This decision is the result of much thoughtful consideration. We happily remain committed and caring friends with great love and admiration for one another."

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In Her Own Words

Aniston opened up about her divorce from Pitt during a Vanity Fair interview in September 2005 and revealed how she was handling the split. “There are many stages of grief,” she told the magazine. “It’s sad, something coming to an end. It cracks you open, in a way—cracks you open to feeling. When you try to avoid the pain, it creates greater pain. I’m a human being, having a human experience in front of the world. I wish it weren’t in front of the world. I try really hard to rise above it.”

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On the Pain It Caused

The Dumplin’ actress got candid while speaking about Pitt and his relationship with Angelina Jolie during an interview with Vogue in December 2008. "There was stuff printed there that was definitely from a time when I was unaware that it was happening," she said of stories told about their split. "I felt those details were a little inappropriate to discuss. That stuff about how she couldn't wait to get to work every day? That was really uncool."

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On Not Feeling Whole

Pitt explained how his personal feelings about where he was mentally during his marriage to Aniston. “I spent the ‘90s trying to hide out, trying to duck the full celebrity cacophony. I started to get sick of myself sitting on a couch, holding a joint, hiding out. It started feeling pathetic. It became very clear to me that I was intent on trying to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn’t living an interesting life myself,” the Fury actor told Parade in September 2011. “I think that my marriage [to actress Jennifer Aniston] had something to do with it. Trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn’t.”

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On Having No Regrets

“My marriages, they’ve been very successful, in [my] personal opinion,” the We’re the Millers actress revealed to Elle in December 2018 of her past marriages to Pitt and Justin Theroux. “And when they came to an end, it was a choice that was made because we chose to be happy, and sometimes happiness didn’t exist within that arrangement anymore.”

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On Award Show Run-Ins

“I’ll run into Jen, she’s a good friend,” Pitt told Entertainment Tonight on the 2020 Golden Globes red carpet when he was told everyone wanted to get a photo of the pair at the event “The second most important reunion of her year? I understand! That was a play on Friends. They were saying that.”

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On the SAGs Reunion

Weeks later, the aforementioned reunion finally happened backstage at the 2020 SAG Awards. After Pitt was seen watching Aniston’s acceptance speech, the exes were photographed embracing. The Morning Show star called the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor stopping to watch her speech “sweet.”

“We’ve all grown up together, we really have. It just feels like a really fun night to celebrate and cheer each other on and keep working,” Aniston told Extra. “You don’t really have that much of a life, so it’s nice to come out and put a pretty dress on and celebrate your friends and their work and inspire each other to keep going.”

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On 'Fast Times'

"It was absolutely fun. Brad and I are buddies, we're friends," the Morning Show star told Howard Stern in June 2021 after collaborating with her former husband for a table read of Fast Times at Ridgemont High the previous September. "And we speak, and there's no oddness at all, except for everyone that probably watched it and was wanting there to be, or assumed there to be."

Dane Cook, who hosted the event, previously said the exes were "pros" during the livestream.

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You Have to Laugh

Aniston joked about the duo's split during the final episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2022 when host Ellen DeGeneres asked how she coped with the end of Friends. "I got a divorce and went into therapy," the Cake star quipped. "And then I did a movie called The Break-Up. I just kind of leaned in to the end. I just was like, 'You know what, guys? Let's make this a completely new chapter.' Let's end everything and then start new. It worked great!"

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On the Speculation About Their Split

“I just cared about my career. And God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child," Aniston told Allure in November 2022 about being called "selfish" by others during her marriage to Pitt. "And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldn’t give him a kid. It was absolute lies. I don’t have anything to hide at this point.”