Brangelina: Why has the Pitt and Jolie divorce taken so long?

Arguably the modern era’s biggest A-list couple, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were married for two years – but it has taken eight years since announcing their divorce to finally reach a deal. Why did it take four times as long as the marriage itself to settle?

One part of the answer is that it’s a particularly messy divorce, complicated by bitter legal disputes involving their children and a French vineyard they bought together.

Some of that still needs to be resolved in what Jolie’s lawyer has called “a long ongoing process”.

Celebrity lawyer Chris Melcher told BBC News the divorce settlement had taken an unusually long time.

“This is much longer than any divorce we typically see,” he said.

“But they initially had fights over custody and then it revolved around this winery they own together, and that’s been the focus of their fight over the last few years.”

Many celebrities want to divorce quickly and move on, Melcher explained.

“A lot of times in a case of this magnitude we can settle it within six months, a year at the very most. Eight years is really a sign of something more going on.

“It’s an inability to let go and a desire to really harm the other.”

Kate Daly, co-founder of online divorce company Amicable, told the BBC that such a case was very different from an average divorce.

“It’s an industry… [they can afford] lots of expensive lawyers,” she said. “Most people couldn’t afford for it to take eight years. It’s an industry and it’s a bad example – we have to distance [normal] people from that kind of narrative.”