Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt sparked a media frenzy when they first got together. Whether you loved, hated, or even cared that two of the most beautiful people in Hollywood were together – you simply couldn’t avoid images of them together in every publication.
Despite rumors of infidelity and secret affairs, Hollywood’s most iconic couple stayed with one another for 12 years, raising their three biological children and three adopted children.
“Tomb Raider” star Angelina Jolie already had two adopted sons, Maddox and Pax, when she met Brad Pitt on the set of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” in 2004. Brad Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston back then.
“Because of the film, we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened. I think a few months in I realized, ‘God, I can’t wait to get to work.’ … Anything we had to do with each other, we just found a lot of joy in it together and a lot of real teamwork. We just became kind of a pair,” Angelina Jolie told People in 2006.
At that time, there were a lot of rumors about a possible romance between Pitt and Jolie – but the main characters of the speculation kept quiet.
“We spent a lot of time contemplating and thinking and talking about what we both wanted in life and realized that we wanted very, very similar things,” Angelina said.
Angelina then agreed to adopt Ethiopia-born Zahara Marley in 2005 and Brad Pitt co-adopted her in 2006.
It was in 2006 that they confirmed they were a pair, when Angelina announced that she was pregnant with Brad’s child. To avoid the media frenzy that would have undoubtedly ensued, she and Pitt traveled to Namibia for the birth.
The fact that Brad and Angelina, dubbed “Brangelina”, were to have a child together became world news.
According to photo agencies, the very first picture of the child was estimated as being worth $1 million – no wonder an army of paparazzi did all they could to get close to the couple.
“Not since Jesus has a baby been so eagerly anticipated,” wrote New York magazine.
The couple gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Shiloh Nouvel, on May 27, 2006. Their daughter was born at a private hospital called The Cottage Medi-Clinic, in the coastal town of Swakopmund, Namibia.
“Angelina underwent a scheduled cesarean due to breech presentation,” Dr. Rothbart told PEOPLE at the time and continued:
“The baby was a healthy 7 lbs. Brad was with Angelina in the operating room the entire time and cut the umbilical cord of his daughter. The surgery and birth went flawlessly. ”
Brad and Angelina then sold the pictures of their gorgeous bundle for a record amount of money, with all proceeds donated to UNICEF.
”While we celebrate the joy of the birth of our daughter, we recognise that 2 million babies born every year in the developing world die on the first day of their lives. These children can be saved, but only if governments around the world make it a priority,” the couple said in a statement.
The extraordinary circumstances this little girl was born into meant it was hard to go anywhere without the media following, but despite the attention, the couple have done everything they can to keep their children’s lives private.
Of course, all eyes remained on Shiloh. Unsurprising, considering her parents.
In May of this year, Shiloh turned 16 years old. She’s now starting to grow up fast. The teenager is reportedly close to her older brothers and sister, as well as younger twin siblings Knox and Vivienne, now 14 years old.
None of them are on social media, so a lot isn’t known about the famous family, but one story that has come to light is that the couple’s oldest biological child hasn’t gone by the name Shiloh since a very young age.
The youngster has instead gone by the name of John Jolie-Pitt, which she chose herself. During a 2008 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Pitt opened up about Shiloh asking him to call her John instead.
