Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are famous American actors. They were called “Brangelina” in newspapers, magazines, and on TV. They started dating 12 years ago, and they have been married for 2 years.
On September 20, 2016, Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt.
It is always sad when a relationship ends, but this is a good opportunity to learn some English words about celebrities, relationships, and divorce.
Learn more: English Vocabulary: Dating
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have split up.
Angelina has ended her relationship with Brad. There are two phrasal verbs in English that are commonly used to talk about the end of a relationship: break up and split up.
You can use both phrasal verbs to talk about the end of any romantic relationship, even if the people were not married.
One person can break up with or split up with another person, or the couple can decide together that they are going to break up or split up.
Break up is more common. Split up is more informal.
Learn more: English Vocabulary: The End of a Relationship
Angelina Jolie filed for divorce.
A divorce is the legal end of a marriage. You must ask a judge in a court of law to end the marriage. The process involves a lot of legal documents. These documents must be filed, or taken to the courthouse and given to an official in the courthouse.
file for divorce = start the process of ending a marriage by giving someone the required official paperwork, in this case legal documents
Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt on September 20, 2016.
In many states in the US, you have to say why you want a divorce. In the divorce forms filed by Angelina Jolie, she cites irreconcilable differences. You hear this term a lot in American TV shows and movies. It’s a legal term that is one of the choices on the legal divorce forms. It means that the couple has problems or wants very different things, and they cannot solve their problems.
Learn more: English Vocabulary: Marriage
She wants sole physical custody of her kids.
Brad and Angelina have 6 children. Three of the children are adopted, and 3 of the children are biological children.
Custody is another legal term. A person who has custody of her children has the legal right to take care of her children. She is responsible for the children and protects them.
Physical custody means that the children will live permanently with Angelina. Brad can visit them, but the children cannot live with him.
Sole custody means that Angelina is the only person who can legally take care of the children. If Brad and Angelina had joint custody, both of them could legally take care of the children.
TMZ broke the story.
TMZ.com is a popular celebrity gossip and news website. It was the first news company to report the information that Angelina had filed for divorce. It published the information on its website before any other news company.
The verb break is often used when important news is told to the public for the first time by a news company, like a newspaper, or radio or TV news program.
On social media or on TV, you may see or hear the phrase breaking news. It is used to identify new information.
Why? Rumors are swirling. Sources say …
People who are interested in this story want to know what happened and why Angelina wants a divorce.
A rumor is information that people share with each other that may or may not be true. It is information that you heard or read, or that someone told you. You can start a rumor or spread a rumor, and you can hear a rumor.
When a lot of people are talking about something but nobody knows the truth, news reports will say rumors are swirling.
When you talk about a rumour, you can say:
I heard that …
I read that …
… Brad has a substance abuse problem.
I read that Angelina thinks he drinks too much and smokes too much weed (marijuana). A problem with alcohol and drugs is often called substance abuse.
… Brad has anger issues.
I read that Brad was drunk on a flight back to the US and he may have been violent with his son.
Saying that someone has issues or has issues with something has become a common, informal way of saying that someone has problems.
… Brad cheated on Angelina with his costar.
This rumor is not true, but I wanted to include it so I could explain the phrasal verb cheat on someone.
If you cheat on your romantic partner (boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, or husband) you have sex with someone else.
He cheated on her with her best friend.
He had sex with his girlfriend’s/wife’s best friend.
… Angelina wants to move to London with the children and start a career in politics.
Angelina has been very involved in humanitarian causes for the past few years. She has traveled around the world helping people. I read that she now wants to become more involved with politics.
I like it.
It is one of the most interesting lesson that i read.
Thank you so much Melanie, the Best English Teacher.
Hello Melanie,
Thank you so much for your useful lectures.
I do really like the way you explain the lesson and the lesson itself is about something that ‘s always a present issue of our lives , of our society , I really enjoy reading kind of this article .
thank you very much for your explainations Melanie ,
All the best / Thanh
Thank you Melanie it’s always a pleasure reading your lessons and it’s was interesting
thanks a lot its usuefull lecture
i want thank you melanie a lot for your fruitful efforts i appreciate especially phrasal verbs when they are used in story bcs ni hope you will do that over and over .
Hi,Melanie! How are you?At first,I couldn’t understand the podcast and your pronunciation.I followed your study tip,imitating the one’s pronunciation.I heard your listening lesson many times,and I imitated. Now I can understand .I felt happy by your lively listening lessons.Could you please correct my sentence?
Hi, Melanie ! I just love your lessons. There are always “breaking news” for me.Language so actual. Thanks a lot. .May God Bless you.
.
Hi Mélanie, thank you for this wonderful lesson. I love it.
May God bless you
That’s a very good article, very easy to follow. It’s a pleasure to read a lesson like that.
Thanks a lot!
Hello, Teacher Melanie. This article its really interesting, I have enjoyed a lot.
Thank you Teacher Melanie for your time and effort.
Interesting news.
Thanks a lot for this lesson. I didn’t know the term ‘ substance abuse’. It helped me to know about it.
Hi, Melanie,
Thanks a lot for the legal information. Having read the news of Brangelina breakup on yahoo News, I was just going to look up “physical custody” in the dictionary, but after reading this lesson, I did not have to since you have clearly explained the term.
Thanks again
Hi,
This was a interesting lesson, I learned more vocabulary, Angeline is a good woman, she is gonig to be better.
Hi Melanie,
Thank you so much for your lectures.I learned more vocabulary.
Thanks a lot!
Thanks so much teacher Melanie, you have been deeply into the teaching; you know very well what to teach. I have heard these expressions before but were clear enough. Now I am sure how to use them. Then again, thanks for sharing this useful knowledge.
Hi Melanie,
Thanks very much for your unrestricted devotion that you want to teach us.
Thank u again and again for further support and willingness in every aspects to you participate in our teaching mechanisms.
Ohh. that is a good story and bad news i like Angelina Julie but i am very sad that divorced and also i really thank you Teacher the reading article.
Berhan
I’m sad, too, Berhan! I was very surprised. I thought they were a very strong couple!
Hi Melanie
Of course the divorce between Angelina and Brad was sad for all hollywood followers… i hope they can continue with their lives and have a good relationship maybe as friends for their children.. and is nice if Angelina wants to involve in politics and continue with her humanitarian causes.
Thank you for your awesome articles!
I am happy that you enjoy my lessons, Helen! Thank you!
Melanie,
This was my first lesson. It’s very morish.
Interesting topic.
Thank you.
Fil