Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston used to be Hollywood's golden couple back in the 90s: a hunk movie star falls in love with a fast-rising girl-next-door actress. It was indeed like a scene out of a fairy tale movie.

According to reports, the Brad-Jen love story started when both stars were set up on a date by their agents in 1998. At that time, both artists were at the peak of their acting careers and were seen as two of the most beautiful faces in the industry.

After dating for a year, Brad went down on one knee and asked Jen to marry him. Their romance headed down the aisle in July 2000, making them the perfect couple under an ideal marriage in the eyes of the public.

Jen and Brad's relationship was like a perfect Hollywood movie turned into real life. That was why their legion of fans was taken aback when the couple announced their split five years after.

Living With 3rd Wheel Paparazzi

What seemed to be an ideal and flawless marriage suddenly hit rock bottom. After the well-publicized breakup, Jennifer revealed that their relationship was not what the media painted it to be.

In a 2005 interview with Variety, Jen revealed that before going public, her relationship with Brad was going smooth and fun.

"We had so much fun falling in love," Jen said. "It was so private; we kept it to ourselves for so long. It was something we were really proud of."

However, when their romance blew up in the press, Brad and Jen were followed continuously by paparazzi who wanted to take a glimpse of their superstar-level relationship. With that, living up to the media's expectation of having a "perfect marriage" became impossible to achieve.

"We were put on a pedestal, but we were just a couple like anybody else," Jen explained. "It's like the ebb and flow of every relationship. It's hard; it gets easy; it gets fun again. What's hard to sustain is some ideal that it's perfect. That's ridiculous."

Jennifer Aniston Blames The Media

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey after her split from the "Troy" star, the "Friends" alum said that having this image of "ideal marriage" was only created by the media and the paparazzi.

Jen agreed when Oprah said that people were obsessed about their marriage and people tended to compare their relationships with Brad and Jen's.

This led the "Bounty Hunter" actress to blame the media for manufacturing an unrealistic face of marriage, which was meant to be a normal one.

"It is that, and it is created so totally by the media. It's not real. It's just not real," Jen said.

"You're human beings having a human experience, and there's nothing different except that you're exposed to the world as a public person."

The 51-year old actress explained that she and Brad might be one of the biggest names in Hollywood, but their feelings, success and pain were just like what everybody else experiences. Hence, there was no need to sensationalize a celebrity marriage.

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Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt