Marion Cotillard: Why she’s been dragged into the Brangelina split

MARION Cotillard is in an awkward position today. As Brad and Angelina’s relationship falls apart, she finds herself caught in the middle.

Actor Marion Cotillard has been dragged into the Brangelina split.

MARION Cotillard is an Oscar-winning French actor, singer-songwriter and environmentalist — but today, she has simply been branded “the other woman”.

The 40-year-old has found herself in the unfortunate position of being caught up in the midst of the sudden Brangelina split, most likely due to the fact she happens to be Brad Pitt’s most recent female co-star.

While insiders have told TMZ there was no “third person” behind Brangelina split, The New York Post is reporting Angelina Jolie dumped Pitt after learning he was cheating on her with Cotillard.

“She [Jolie] hired a private eye because she felt that he was fooling around with her on the set, and it turns out, he was. And that was the final straw,” the source said.

Cotillard, while living in the public eye thanks to a highly successful career, has certainly never weathered a media storm like this.

Brangelina are no more. Picture: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

The actor was born in Paris in an artistic household — her father was an award-winning director and her mother is an actor.

Her breakout role came in 2007 with La Vie en rose, for which she received critical acclaim and won several awards, including a BAFTA and an Academy Award — making her the first actor to take home an Oscar for a performance in the French language.

Soon after news broke this morning that Jolie had filed for divorce after two years of marriage, fans reeling from shock were quick to point the finger of blame at the French actor.

It’s been widely accepted that Pitt’s flirtation with co-star Jolie on set of their 2005 film Mr and Mrs Smith was the catalyst for the breakdown of his marriage with Jennifer Aniston — and it seems many are determined to believe history is repeating itself.

Pitt, 52, had been rumoured to have been getting close to his Allied co-star Cotillard for months during the pair’s filming of the World War II drama in London.

Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard on the set of Allied. Picture: Splash News Australia

However, sources close to Cotillard have firmly denied talk of an affair, and insist she is still with her long-term partner, director Guillaume Canet.

So what really happened to break up Brangelina’s marriage?

Sources claim Jolie is pushing for sole custody of the couple’s six children because she is “fed up” with Pitt’s weed and booze consumption, which could be “dangerous” for the children when combined with his “anger problem”.

Pitt’s camp have already hit back at those claims, telling TMZ it’s a “malicious lie” and he is “a loving and devoted father who has never and would never put his children in any dangerous situation”.

Pitt released a statement hours after news broke, begging for privacy.

“I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the wellbeing of our kids,” he said. “I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time.”