One of Hollywood’s most famous marriages is coming to an end.

Actress Angelina Jolie has filed for a divorce from actor Brad Pitt, her attorney says in a statement, signalling the end of one of Hollywood’s most glamorous and powerful couples.

“This decision was made for the health of the family. She will not be commenting, and asks that the family be given its privacy at this time,” attorney Robert Offer said in the statement on Tuesday.

Angelina Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt separated five days ago, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE https://t.co/EJqx4nalKx pic.twitter.com/oxT3QGqbxq

— People (@people) September 20, 2016

Pitt has spoken however to PEOPLE, saying his focus was on the “well-being of our kids.”

“I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the well-being of our kids,” he said in the statement.

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

Jolie filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, citing irreconcilable differences as grounds for the split, court documents showed.

She sought full physical custody of their six children, and Pitt asked for visitation rights.

Jolie cited their separation date as September 15.

Entertainment website TMZ, citing sources connected to the couple, said Jolie “was extremely upset” by Pitt’s parenting methods.

Sources close to Pitt told the publication other allegations about substance use and “an anger problem” are a “malicious lie”.

“[Pitt] is a loving and devoted father who has never and would never put his children in any dangerous situation,” the sources said.

Meanwhile, Page Six is reporting the reason for the split being Jolie’s discovery Pitt was “cheating on her” with his Allied co-star Marion Cotillard, but sources have told TMZ and People there was no third party involved.

A new trailer for the film, a romantic thriller set in World War Two-era London, was released by Paramount Pictures just hours after Pitt and Jolie’s announcement.

Watch the trailer for Allied:

Jolie and Pitt, known collectively as “Brangelina,” were one of the entertainment world’s most visible couples, due to their good looks, successful films and activism.

Peter Walzer, the Californian lawyer who represented actress Katie Holmes in her divorce from superstar Tom Cruise, told Reuters that it was unusual for Jolie to seek sole physical custody and it suggested Pitt was not competent to be a parent.

“It’s an insult,” Walzer said.

Media commentators reacted to the news with surprise and sadness. “Today shall go down as the day love died,” Vogue said in an online report on the couple’s split.

They married in 2014 after 10 years together.

Jolie, 41, who won a best-supporting actress Oscar for Girl, Interrupted in 2000, was previously married to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt — It's About Their Kids, NOT That Actress https://t.co/kXXmPYn614

— TMZ (@TMZ) September 20, 2016

Pitt, 52, one of Hollywood’s leading men, was married to actress Jennifer Aniston in 2003 when he and Jolie began filming Mr & Mrs Smith, the story of two married professional killers who have unknowingly been assigned to kill each other.

There were reports of an affair during that time, but Jolie told Vogue magazine they were only “very, very good friends” until Pitt and Aniston split in 2005.

In happier times – at the 2008 Screen Actors Guild Awards. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage/Getty

Jolie, the estranged daughter of actor Jon Voight, had a bohemian reputation early in her career but more recently has taken on humanitarian causes and was named a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

She frequently visits countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Tanzania, Iraq and Jordan to call attention to the plight of refugees and the underprivileged.

Pitt joined Jolie on some of her trips and started a foundation to finance reconstruction of homes in New Orleans after the city was flooded by Hurricane Katrina.

Together they started the Jolie-Pitt Foundation in 2006 to help charities worldwide.

"Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's divorce marks the end of an era" https://t.co/t3HTeCCwID

— TIME (@TIME) September 20, 2016

Their children include sons adopted from Cambodia and Vietnam and a daughter adopted from Ethiopia.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were often caught on camera herding their six children through various airports – here they are in Japan. Photo: Jun Sato/WireImage

To encourage other women to explore their options, Jolie spoke out publicly about her elective surgeries in 2013 and 2015 to have her breasts, ovaries and fallopian tubes removed as a preventive measure due to a family history of cancer.

In addition to her Oscar win, Jolie was nominated for an Academy Award for Changeling in 2008.
 She also starred in two Lara Croft action films, The Good Shepherd, A Mighty Heart and The Tourist.

– AAP