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How Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Changed Their Mind About Marriage

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive at the 81st Annual Academy Awards held at The Kodak Theatre on February 22, 2009.

What a difference seven years — and six kids! — makes!

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie finally announced their engagement on Friday — but back in October 2006, about a year after he and Jolie went public with their romance, he told Esquire magazine that they took a hard line when it came to matrimony.

“Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able,” Pitt, now 48, said in a strong statement of support for the federal legalization of same-sex marriage.

Related: PHOTOS: Brangelina's PDA-packed year

In September 2007, Pitt donated $100,000 to the campaign against Proposition 8 “because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn’t harm another and because discrimination has no place in America.”

A spokeswoman for ProtectMarriage, Jennifer Kerns, countered Pitt saying, “We certainly respect his right in the political process, but we don’t believe he is the most exemplary figure on the issue of marriage.”

Jolie spoke out to Marie Claire in July 2007 about marrying Pitt saying, “We’re not against it. It just doesn’t seem necessary. He and I have never discussed it in detail, but I would assume – because we [both] went down that road before – it’s not that contract or that ceremony that makes you feel solid.”

Pitt and his first wife, Jennifer Aniston, divorce in 2005 after 5 years of marriage. Jolie has been married twice before to Jonny Lee Miller (1996-1999) and Billy Bob Thornton (2000-2003).

Brangelina 2008
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attend the “Kung Fu Panda” premiere during the 61st Cannes International Film Festival on May 15, 2008.

Yet by December 2011, Pitt appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and still voiced the same opinion. “I’ve said that we would not be getting married until everyone in this county had the right to get married…” he said. “Until that is reversed. I just don’t get it.”

Around the same time, Jolie told ABC’s Nightline they were beginning to feel some pressure from their kids — Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 5 and twins Knox and Vivienne, 3 — to marry. “We’ve explained to them that our commitment when we decided to start a family was the greatest commitment you could possibly have,” she explained. “Once you have six children, you’re…you’re committed.”

Related: PHOTOS: Angelina's most stunning looks of all time

But their tune drastically changed by January 2012.

“We’d actually like to,” Pitt told The Hollywood Reporter about getting married, “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.”

In a January 2012 interview with CBS News, Pitt revealed he told his children he’d marry their mom. “We will someday. We will. That’s a great idea!,” he told them. ” ‘Get mommy a ring!’ ‘Okay, I will, I will.’ ” 

Brangelina 2006
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive at the World Premiere of ”The Good Shepherd” presented by Universal Pictures at the Ziegfeld Theatre on December 11, 2006.

And he finally did!

A rep for jeweler Robert Procop told Us Weekly, “I can confirm that, yes, Robert Procop did indeed design an engagement ring for Angelina Jolie, designed in collaboration with Brad Pitt.”

“Yes, it’s confirmed. It is a promise for the future and their kids are very happy,” Pitt’s manager Cynthia Pett-Dante told the Associated Press Friday. “There’s no date set at this time. Brad designed the ring.”

Related: PHOTOS: How the Jolie-Pitt kids have grown up

Jolie was photographed wearing her new emerald cut rock Wednesday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Chinese Galleries. 

Tell Us: Are you glad Pitt and Jolie changed their mind or should they have waited for gay marriage to be legalized?

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