It’s been seven and a half years since Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie first filed for divorce, shocking the world as we watched our most golden of A-list couples fall. Since that fateful September day in 2016, when Jolie merely said the ‘decision was made for the health of the family’, the legal battle between the former power pairing has gone from bad to worse, to ugly as Brangelina have thrashed out their differences.

Those have included wranglings over custody of their six children, to the division of their financial assets – including their French chateau and its accompanying vineyard, Miraval, which has become a separate court case of its own after Jolie reportedly sold her half of the property to a Russian oligarch without consulting her ex-husband.

And while it often felt like the Mr and Mrs Smith stars may never reach an agreement and finalise their divorce, this week TMZ has reported that, in fact, Jolie and Pitt’s final financial paperwork had been filed to the California courts, meaning their years-long legal fight could finally be coming to an end.

The first sign that their various disputes may be nearing a denouement was a win for Pitt in the Miraval case (which was dubbed by Vanity Fair as the ‘War of the Rosé’, referring to the vineyard’s famous wine). Pitt, 60, appeared in court in both California and in Luxembourg, arguing that he should have a controlling interest in the vaunted vineyard after Jolie, 48, sold her shares to Yuri Shefler, owner of Russian vodka giant Stoli. Pitt’s triumph in this case appears to have kickstarted major progress in the former couple’s divorce, which has been sitting in something of a stalemate for some time.

More recently this seemed to be because of the difficulty in agreeing a custody settlement. Indeed, there had been signs that a custody agreement simply may never be agreed, after news surfaced that Pitt and Jolie’s adopted son Pax, 19, had shared a scathing account of how he felt about his father on his private Instagram story on Father’s Day in 2020. In the leaked screenshot, shared by the Daily Mail, Pax wrote over a photograph of Brad accepting an Oscar for his performance in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. ‘Happy Father’s Day to this world-class a***hole”!’ the post read. ‘You time and time and again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person.’ The teenager then allegedly claimed the Hollywood star made his four youngest children ‘tremble in fear’, and ‘made the lives of those closest to [Pax] a constant hell’.

This report came days after it was revealed that Zahara, Brad’s 18-year-old adopted daughter, had dropped the ‘Pitt’ from her double-barrelled surname, Jolie-Pitt, leaving her simply Zahara Jolie. Her eldest brother Maddox, 22, is also thought to have  dropped ‘Pitt’ from his name. It is with Maddox that Brad is said to have had the most serious fall out, after it was suggested that the eldest of their children had been assaulted by Brad during an incident on a private jet in 2016. In 2022, a court filing about that incident was made public. In the document, Angelina’s legal team alleged that Brad had drunkenly attacked her, grabbing her head and shaking her several times. The filing stated, ‘Pitt lunged at his own child and Jolie grabbed him from behind to stop him. Before it was over, Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face. A month later, the FBI investigated the incident, but no charges were filed, and Brad has never commented. A source close to the family says that Pitt, however, has made some progress with reconciling his relationship with his daughters Shilioh and Vivienne, and her twin sister Knox.

Now, say Hollywood sources, both Pitt and Jolie are daring to hope they may finally have worked out a way to finalise their papers and move forward with their lives after what has often felt like ‘seven years of hell’. One source close to Jolie said that she has been desperate to leave Los Angeles for some time, though has been unable to full time because of the divorce case playing out in the California courts. She told WSJ towards the end of last year, ‘It’s part of what happened after my divorce, I lost the ability to live and travel as freely.I will move when I can,’ adding that she and the children needed ‘time to heal’ from the devastating effects of the divorce process and Jolie’s allegations of abusive behaviour by Pitt. It’s thought Jolie is eyeing a move to New York where she has a support network of friends and wants to focus on her Atelier Jolie philanthropic fashion label.

As for Pitt, who has worked to become sober since the incident on the plane in 2016, sources say that having turned 60 just before Christmas, he is keen to embrace a ‘fresh start’ after a rollercoaster of negative tabloid stories in recent years. ‘Brad was famously the golden boy of Hollywood for most of his career, even when he split from Jen and got together with Angelina, he wasn’t demonised,’ said the source. That being said, it’s hardly affected Pitt’s career, with his Plan B production company thriving, with big upcoming projects such as the Beetlejuice sequel and the forthcoming David Fincher film The Killer.

In a personal sense, however, Pitt hasn’t stepped out publicly with a new girlfriend until now, when his romance with 34-year-old jewellery designer Ines de Ramon appears to be becoming ever serious and photos showed the pair looking very close at a Bono concert in November. Although he was first linked with the Swiss designer over a year ago, sources say that Pitt and de Ramon are now ‘inseparable’ and an engagement could even be on the cards when Pitt’s divorce is finalised.

For now, though, both Pitt and Jolie will be wary of making any firm plans for the future until they have their divorce papers signed and finalised. It will be the end of not only one of the most epic romances in Hollywood, but one of the most epic divorces.