“Celebrity Edge” for 944 Magazine

Is Brad Pitt secretly seeing his ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston?

Rumors started swirling last summer when he was rumored to have visited the New York set of her movie, The Switch, while his current live-in girlfriend, Angelina Jolie filmed her movie, Salt, just miles away.

Now, more than a year later, the tabloids insist that the former couple have maintained contact, and that Aniston would like Pitt to father her child.

There is no concrete evidence to support any of these rumors, but it’s easy to understand why they persist. Jolie is the exotic “other woman” who stole a married man from Aniston, the all-American “girl next door.” And no amount of good-will ambassadorship or third-world adoptions can change that perception. 

I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Just months after the divorce, Pitt’s parents were rumored to have celebrated Thanksgiving with their former daughter-in-law in California, while their son explored the wilds of India with his new, illicit love. Since then, many of us have secretly hoped that one day he would forgo the seductive scent of the unknown in favor of the domestic security of home.

Don’t count on it.

Richard Burton was married to his hometown sweetheart when he fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Cleopatra. The two carried on an infamously adulterous affair before ultimately marrying, then divorcing not once, but twice. He is said to have written her a love letter on the day he died, despite being married to someone else.

To be fair, Burton never did go back to his first wife, but I’m betting that if Pitt ever left Jolie for “the one who got away,” he’d be back, time and again.

I think we all have that “one that got away.” The one that makes us ask, “what if?”

I know I do.

In October of 2002, the country was gripped in fear as the infamous D.C. sniper terrorized innocent people as they pumped gas in the nation’s capital. We were across the country in Portland, Ore., but it was our former police chief, Charles Moose, who oversaw the investigation. So, as a city, we watched and cringed as he was humiliated by the mad man’s whim.

My could-have-been husband was tall, dark and handsome, but not the least bit dangerous. He was a banker who lived in the same city where he’d graduated from high school and who took me to church with his mother. But I was a young reporter who saw horrible things on a daily basis, and — oh! — the security of his arms felt good.

He woke me up one morning to tell me he’d had a sniper-fueled nightmare where he had to protect me from harm. I was sold. But ultimately, I didn’t stay.

Years later, when I prepared to move across the country to Atlanta, he brought his new wife to my going-away party. “You always said you’d leave,” he said with a smile. I choked up, but didn’t regret my decision to reject the security of domestic bliss. I knew I had more adventure in store.

So when I hear rumors about Brad Pitt considering a reunion with his “girl next door,” I understand. She’s the one that got away. But while he may visit, I don’t expect him to stay.