Culture

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie give up on waiting for marriage equality and get engaged

Apr 13 2012
Written by James Park

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have finally decided to abandon their pledge not to marry until every couple in the United States can do the same, gay or straight. The couple had indicated that they were facing pressure from their children to formalise their relationship.

A spokeswoman for Pitt confirmed earlier today that the pair were to wed after Jolie was photographed in Los Angeles wearing a huge diamond ring, designed by Pitt on her engagement finger.

“Yes, it’s confirmed. It is a promise for the future and their kids are very happy. There’s no date set at this time,” Cynthia Pett-Dante a spokesperson for Pitt said.

In January, Pitt told the Hollywood Reporter that he did not know whether they would be able to go the distance on the promise.

He told the magazine: “We’d actually like to, and it seems to mean more and more to our kids. We made this declaration some time ago that we weren’t going to do it till everyone can. But I don’t think we’ll be able to hold out.

“It means so much to my kids, and they ask a lot. And it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment.”

Equal marriage legislation has recently been passed in Washington state and Maryland. However, the Governor of New Jersey vetoed an equal marriage bill. In Maine, enough signatures have been collected on a petition to trigger a public ballot.

But in Minnesota and North Carolina, discussions are taking place to introduce constitutional amendments defining marriage as being between a man and a woman.

This means that Pitt and Jolie’s previous prerequisite of universal marriage equality in the United States was unlikely to happen soon or possibly in their lifetime.

Charlize Theron made a similar pledge in 2009 about then-boyfriend Stuart Townsend. Theron originally hails from South Africa, where gay marriage is legal.

When New York introduced equal marriage laws last year, Pitt said: “It is encouraging that New York has joined the movement to grant equal marriage rights to its citizens.

“But it is each American’s Constitutional right to marry the person they love, no matter what state they inhabit. No state should decide who can marry and who cannot.”

He added: “Thanks to the tireless work of so many, someday soon this discrimination will end and every American will be able to enjoy their equal right to marriage.”

Last month, Pitt starred in ‘8’ playing Judge Vaughn Walker in a play on the trial that ruled that California’s ballot measure Proposition 8 which revoked gay citizens’ right to marry was unconstitutional.