Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt marry in France

Los Angeles, USA (3rd UPDATE) – It’s finally official: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have tied the knot in a ceremony in France, a spokesman told the Associated Press. People magazine also confirmed the news.

They were married Saturday, August 23.

The A-list Oscar winners were married by a US judge on Saturday in a small chapel at Chateau Miraval in the southern French village of Correns.

Jolie was walked down the aisle by her eldest sons Maddox and Pax. Her daughters Zahara and Vivienne threw petals, while the couple’s other two children Shiloh and Knox were the ring bearers.

“It was very much a family affair,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.

Pitt and Jolie obtained a marriage license in California from a local US judge, who traveled to France to conduct the wedding, which was described as a “non-denominational civil ceremony.”

On Thursday, Pitt was photographed wearing a gold band on his left ring finger during an event in Britain to promote his new World War II film Fury, in which he plays a battle-hardened army sergeant.

The Tinseltown royal couple fell in love on the set of 2005 action film “Mr & Mrs Smith” – spawning the media phenomenon of “Brangelina” that has dominated celebrity journalism and the tabloids ever since.

Earlier this year, Jolie, 39, had told People that she and Pitt were “not really in a rush” to get married, adding: “We’re just waiting for it to be the right time with the kids, with work, when it feels right.” 

Tinseltown royalty  

Jolie – twice married and divorced before her wedding to the 50-year-old Pitt – took home an Oscar for best supporting actress for her portrayal of a rebellious woman in a mental institution in 1999’s Girl, Interrupted.

She has since played everything from a fairy tale villain (Maleficent) to a sexy video game heroine (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) to the widow of assassinated American journalist Daniel Pearl (A Mighty Heart).

The actress revealed last year that she had had a double mastectomy to reduce her high risk of breast cancer. (READ: Breast cancer and Angelina’s choice)

Pitt got his big break more than 20 years ago with a much-talked-about shirtless eye-candy role in the hit movie Thelma and Louise – as the two-bit thief who seduces Geena Davis.

Since then, he has also built a resume of varied film roles, starring alongside some of the industry’s other mega-watt stars: with Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire, with Anthony Hopkins in Legends of the Fall and with George Clooney in Ocean’s Eleven.

He has received three Oscar nominations for his acting – in 1996 for Twelve Monkeys, in 2009 for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and in 2012 for Moneyball.

This year, Pitt took home an Academy Award as one of the producers of best picture 12 Years a Slave.

Pitt was previously married to Friends star Jennifer Aniston – a Hollywood super-pairing that fizzled out, at about the same time as Pitt met Jolie.

Jolie – the daughter of Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight – was married to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.

The supercouple are now working on By the Sea – their first on-screen appearance together since Mr and Mrs Smith. The movie is to be filmed in Malta.

Their children are Maddox, 13; Pax, 11; Zahara, 9; Shiloh, 8; and six-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. Maddox, Pax and Zahara are adopted.

From tabloid queen to UN advocate 

Jolie once delighted gossip columnists by declarations of bisexuality and quirky behavior such as wearing a vial of Thornton’s blood around her neck during their 2000-2003 marriage.

The red carpet darling is now however better known for her humanitarian work than for her tabloid-ready comments. (READ: The passion of Angelina Jolie)

Jolie long served as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

In 2012, she was promoted to special envoy and has visited refugees around the world, from Syria to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

More recently, she has been a vocal advocate for victims of sexual violence in war zones, co-hosting a global summit on conflict rape in June in London.

That same month, she was made an honorary dame in Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday honors list.

Jolie made her directorial debut in 2011 with In the Land of Blood and Honey, an unflinching drama about rape as a weapon in wartime Bosnia, saying she hoped to use cinema as a force for reconciliation.

Of her life with Pitt and children, Jolie told People in May: “We’ve been through so much, we’ve gotten a lot closer, which I think naturally happens with raising a family together.”

“You have this person you live with who really knows you, and you know them so well. You’re not lovers or boyfriend and girlfriend as much as you are a family,” she added. – Rappler.com