NEW YORK: The wait is finally over: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Hollywood’s reigning royal couple, have tied the knot.
Despite two years of feverish scrutiny, the pair managed to keep one of the world’s most anticipated weddings shrouded from the media’s glare.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the couple confirmed to The Associated Press that they wed Saturday in a private ceremony in Southern France. The representative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to be quoted by name, said Jolie and Pitt exchanged vows in a small chapel at the Chateau Miraval in the Provence hamlet of Correns.
Since 2008, Miraval has been the couple’s Southern France home, a sprawling estate they bought three years ago.
The union was less a vow of commitment than the official affirmation of one made long ago. Pitt and Jolie have been together nearly a decade and have six children, all of whom participated in the wedding.
Pitt’s brother Doug and sister Julie Neal were not among the guests. Nor was Jolie’s estranged father Jon Voight, who said he was unaware she had married until he was told by a US TV station yesterday.
The wedding may have been cloaked in secrecy, but Pitt and Jolie are preparing to be a big presence at the movies this autumn. Pitt stars in the upcoming World War II drama Fury, due out October 23 in the UAE. Jolie’s second directorial effort, the World War II odyssey Unbroken, will be released in December.
On Thursday, Pitt was far from any honeymoon hideaway. Instead, he was at the Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset, UK, promoting Fury, a brutal tale about a tank of American soldiers rolling through Europe in the final days of World War II.
Both movies could be major players in Hollywood’s award season, which last year was dominated by a film produced by Pitt, the best picture-winning historical drama 12 Years a Slave.
The couple will now jet off to Malta to begin filming By The Sea, in which they reportedly play a husband and wife.