Brangelina no more: Angelina Jolie files for divorce from Brad Pitt

Hollywood power coupleAngelina Jolie and Brad Pittis no more.

Oscar-winning actress and directorJolie, who is also a special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR),has filed for divorce from actor and producer Pitt, according toRobert Offer, lawyerforJolie.

Offer said the decision was made "for the health of the family."

Jolie would "not be commenting at this time" and asked that her family be "given their privacy,"he added.

• PHOTOS |A brief history of Brangelina

In a statement issued to People magazine, Pitt also asked for privacy.

"I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the well-being of our kids," Pittsaid in the statement.

"I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time."

Jolie and Pitt, referred to in entertainment media as Brangelina,have six children:Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh, Pax, Vivienne and Knox.

The two met on the set of the 2004 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith an action comedy in which they starred as married assassins working for rival agencies and officially became a couple in 2005.

After about a decade together, the pairmarried in August 2014.

Most recently, the twostarred as a troubled married couple in 2015's By the Sea, which Jolie directed.

Jolie was previously married to actor Billy Bob Thornton and, earlier, actor Johnny Lee Miller. Pitt was previously married to actress Jennifer Aniston.

Jolie and Pitt'srelationship wasoneof contemporary Hollywood'smost high-profile, tabloid-covered pairings.

Myriad articles debatedwhether they first hooked up while he was still married to Aniston, media around the worldreported onthe births of theglobe-trotting couple's children (Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne)and theiradoptions (Maddox, Zaharaand Pax), while their allegedmarital spats were regular fodder in U.S. tabloids.

In recent years, Joliehasbalanced her filmmaking with various causes, including working with the UN to highlight the plight of refugees and for increased awareness of breast and ovarian cancer, after her revelation that she hadundergone a preventive double mastectomy (and, later, further preventive surgery).

• PHOTOS | Angelina Jolie and otherHollywood stars who use their profiles to improve the world

They famously turned ravenous interest for the first images of their newborn daughter Shiloh into a philanthropic opportunity: after selling theexclusive photo and storyrights to People and Hello! magazines, they donated all the proceeds to charity. They later repeated the practice, including upon the birthof twins Vivienne and Knox.

"Itwas extremely revolutionary that they donated the funds from the photos of their [biologicalchildren's births] and their wedding to charities. I think that it led the way for other celebrity couples to actually do the same... That they contributed those funds to causes that really made a differencein the world was exemplary," NatashaKoifman, president of public relations firmNKPRand board memberof the charity Artists forPeace and Justice, told CBC News.

"They were the Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor of our time, for sure," she said.

Jolie and Pitt often travelled the world with their childrenfor their various film and other projects. They shareda home in southern California, as well as an estateand vineyard in the south of France.