When Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston reunited backstage at the Screen Actors Guild Awards overnight, we all collectively lost our minds.
The former couple, who finalised their divorce in 2005 after long being considered a rare Hollywood marriage success story, were seen chatting backstage after Pitt won an award for his supporting role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Almost immediately, the photos sparked rumours in the tabloids of a reconciliation between the pair.
Likewise, on social media, Pitt and Aniston were trending worldwide, with thousands of fans sharing their reactions to the photos.
"We just want mum and dad back together," one fan wrote on Twitter.
"We will be telling our grand-kids about this. That's how important this is," another wrote.
Maybe now, after 15 years apart, Hollywood's favourite couple would be getting back together.
We can only dream, right?
But you see, there's something we're all conveniently forgetting about Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.
Listen to the latest episode of The Spill, Mamamia's daily entertainment news podcast, below. Post continues after podcast.
Pitt and Aniston first met in 1998 in the most Hollywood way possible – through their publicists.
Two years later, the pair married in a lavish Malibu ceremony.
The wedding, which cost over $1 million, included a huge fireworks display, a 40-member gospel choir and 50,000 flowers.
At the time, the pair were seen as the ultimate noughtie's couple. Hollywood's very first modern power couple.
But within a few years, it all came crashing down.
In 2004, Pitt signed on to make Mr and Mrs Smith alongside Angelina Jolie.
As filming for the movie began, rumours of an affair started and within just a few months, Pitt and Aniston separated.
Within just a couple of months, Pitt and Jolie became an official couple and were soon photographed at home together for W Magazine.
Immediately, the story went gangbusters.
As Joe Piazza, US showbiz columnist and podcast host, said: "Brad Pitt and Angelina had strong brands already in 2004, but by hooking up in 2005, they combined the two most intriguing narratives in Hollywood. Brad was married to America's sweetheart and abandoned a seemingly perfect marriage for the bad girl. Angelina was a bad girl who was redeemed."
In the years that followed, Aniston and Jolie were plastered on magazine covers worldwide. At one point, 'Team Aniston' and 'Team Jolie' t-shirts were even sold.
Prior to finalising their divorce, Aniston opened up to the media about her shock and confusion over Pitt's affair with Jolie.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Aniston admitted that she was "shocked" to see intimate photos of Pitt and Jolie in W Magazine, just months after their separation.
"The world was shocked, and I was shocked," she said.
"I'd be a robot if I said I didn't feel moments of anger, of hurt, of embarrassment."
Pitt and Jolie's photo shoot in W Magazine, which was released mere months after Pitt split from Aniston, presented the new couple as a husband and wife with a large family.
"There's a sensitive chip that's missing [from Pitt]," Aniston said, commenting on the photo shoot.
"Is it odd timing? Yeah, but it's not my life. He makes his choices. He can do – whatever. We're [soon to be] divorced and you can see why."
During the interview, Aniston was asked about reports that Jolie was pregnant with Pitt's child.
"She looks as if I stabbed her in the heart. Several long minutes go by as the tears keep rolling down her cheeks," interview Leslie Bennetts wrote.
The Friends actress also shared that she had been attending therapy to deal with the break up.
"Am I lonely? Yes. Am I upset? Yes. Do I have my days when I've thrown a little pity party for myself? Absolutely," she said.
"I just don't know what happened. There's a lot I don't understand, a lot I don't know, and probably never will know really."
When Pitt and Jolie's relationship began, the pair (who have since separated) denied having an affair while Aniston was still married to Pitt.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Aniston chose to believe her husband's claims, adding: "I choose to believe my husband. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised by anything, but I would much rather choose to believe him."
Later on, both Pitt and Jolie admitted they got together while filming Mr and Mrs Smith.
"Not a lot of people get to see a movie where their parents fell in love," Jolie later said about the film.
Despite Pitt and Aniston's very public break up, it seems there's no bad blood between the pair.
Brad Pitt speaks to Carrie Bickmore about opening up about his struggle with addiction. Post continues below.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight earlier this year, Pitt acknowledged the fact he'd likely run into Aniston during awards season.
"I'll run into Jen, she's a good friend," he said.
"The second most important reunion of her year? I understand. That was a play on Friends. They were saying that," he added, referring to Aniston's famous Friends reunion Instagram photo.
But while the pair are likely friends, the rumours about them getting back together are just that. Rumours.
After all, would you get back with a man who publicly dumped you for another woman 15 years ago?
Feature Image: Getty.
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Top Comments
I always find it really strange they were considered a "rare marriage success story". They had only been married for 4.5 years (less than most hollywood marriages last) and even then, by their own admissions (both Aniston and Pitt) they were in marriage therapy 6 months in, and for the last year, the lived separately. Even before Brad started filming Mr and Mrs Smith. So, say their marriage lasted, at best, 3.5 years. Hardly a success. A massive fail, even by Hollywood marriage standards. But anyway;
1. The photoshoot was ordered by the Director of Mr and Mrs Smith, it was to promote the movie. It was work. It wasn't even in their home. Aniston herself also promoted a movie this way, with a married man.
2. Aniston has her own sensitivity chip missing. She was going around the studio introducing Justin Theroux as her new boyfriend, unbeknownst to Theroux's partner of 14, (fourteen) years, Heidi Bivens, who was learning of this from their home they shared. Bivens fled their home the weekend the news broke. And within a week, intimate cosy photos of Aniston and Theroux were released, just a week after Heidi fled their home in tears. The photos of Aniston and Theroux were actually of them, a *real* couple, unlike the work shoot Brad and Angelina were forced to do. Aniston admitted numerous times Brad never cheated on her. So did Courteney Cox. So why not believe them? Considering Aniston is a homewrecker and cheat herself.
3. Angelina was talking about the movie characters John Smith and Jane Smith. The full quote of that often deliberately truncated quote is: "Not a lot of people get to see a movie where their parents fell in love, and tried to kill each other". The excluded part makes all the difference. She was talking about their characters being hired as assassins to kill each other. Unless, people think were trying to kill each other in real life? It is clearly not evidence of an affair. Especially as Aniston herself admitted in a Vanity Fair interview that Brad came to her, admitted had feelings for Angelina. Aniston wanted to have an affair, 'get it out of his system' and come back to her. But he was too honourable for that, so he left Aniston completely clear cut, and then chased after Angelina. That is being upfront and honest. Not having an affair. Aniston decided to get revenge for Brad not having an affair while returning to her, and created the lie of an affair, and fanned the flames of a vendetta against Angelina and Brad that lasted almost 10 years - until she homewrecked Heidi and Justin. Aniston is a master media manipulator, this 'run in' was clearly conceived by her agent Stephen Huvane who was infamously busted for phoning in stories to tabloids about Aniston, and then calling back to deny - from the same phone line.
Jolie admitted they were cheating in an interview in 2008. Everybody knew it anyway. He's a creep.
Wrong. As I said above, she didn't admit any such thing. She was talking about the characters. Everybody now knows there was no cheating.
Jen's way to good for the likes of him