Jen’s heartbreak over Brad’s new scandal
Jennifer Aniston is haunted by the past as her ex Brad Pitt takes his new girlfriend to his former marital home on what would have been his wedding anniversary
IT BROUGHT UP RAW EMOTIONS AND MEMORIES OF HIS THOUGHTLESS ACTIONS
Despite their highprofile divorce in 2005, Jennifer Aniston and
Brad Pitt have grown close again recently, even leading to rumours the pair were reuniting romantically after they were snapped hugging at the SAG Awards in January, with the actor also attending her 50th birthday last year.
Speculation intensified following reports the pair had been spending most of their time together during lockdown, with sources revealing Brad was also helping Jen realise her dream of becoming a mum by supporting his former wife’s plans to adopt.
However, their growing bond was put in jeopardy in the summer as Brad reunited with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie, with the pair coming together to spend more time with their six children – something Jen was said to have understood and sympathised with.
But insiders say Jen has had to reassess her new-found friendship with Brad, 56, after he took his rumoured new girlfriend, German model Nicole Poturalski, 27, to Château Miraval, the £50m French château he co-owned with Angelina.
PAINFUL REMINDER
The pair also married there in 2014 and, to add insult to injury, Brad and Nicole’s visit to the vineyard was on what would have been his and Angelina’s sixth wedding anniversary. Nicole is also already married to Berlin-based restaurateur Roland Mary, who introduced Brad to his wife – although the spouses are allegedly in an open relationship.
Brad’s actions reportedly left Angelina, 45, “furious and utterly stunned”. It’s also served as a painful reminder to Jennifer, 51, of her own heartbreaking split from the actor.
A source tells Closer,
“Jen really thought Brad was a changed man, but watching his insensitive actions has dredged up past hurt and reopened old wounds, which has been understandably painful for her.
“While she knows how hard Brad’s worked to change his ways over the years – getting sober after battling alcoholism and being such a devoted dad
– she couldn’t help but think his recent actions were extremely insensitive.
“While she’s never been a fan of Ange, she admitted she had felt tormented and betrayed by what Brad did. It brought up raw emotions and memories of his thoughtless actions to her, too.”
Brad and Jen married in a lavish Malibu wedding in 2000 and, just three years later, the actress revealed she was looking forward to “slowing down” and starting a family with him.
DISTANCE
A year later, the Hollywood heartthrob began filming Mr & Mrs Smith with Angelina, and the two struck up a close bond.
Amid speculation the pair started an affair, Angelina confessed in an interview that being on set “brought them together”, adding, “I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that just suddenly happened.
“A few months in, I realised, ‘God, I can’t wait to get to work’… anything we had to do with each other, we found a lot of joy in it and a lot of teamwork. We just became kind of a pair.”
In 2005, divorce proceedings between Brad and Jen began, and she claimed he had a “sensitivity chip missing” after snaps of him and Angelina together surfaced before the divorce was finalised. Opening up about her hurt over Ange’s revelation, Jen said, “There was stuff printed there that was definitely from a time when I was unaware that it was happening. 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.”
Insiders recently told Closer that Jen had turned to Brad – who shares three biological and three adopted children with Ange – for help adopting a much longed-for child. But following the recent scandal surrounding his married girlfriend, pals say the Morning Show star – who divorced her second husband, Justin Theroux, in 2018 – has decided to distance herself from her ex.
FRUSTRATED
The insider says, “Jen was clinging on to the hope that they could get that closeness and friendship back, but she now wonders if the past is best left in the past. With the recent scandal, while she will always be cordial with Brad, she feels being in constant touch will always cause her upset if it reminds her of their history and the way he hurt her.
“She says she needs to focus on herself, and is leaning on her other pals, including Courteney [Cox] and Lisa [Kudrow], as she hopes to embark on her motherhood journey.”
By Daisy McLure