Fact Check

A Secret of Love — Brad Pitt

Actor Brad Pitt did not author 'A Secret of Love,' a romantic tale about a man caring for his unwell wife.

Published June 27, 2013

Claim:
Actor Brad Pitt authored "A Secret of Love" about his wife.

This essay on "A Secret of Love", written from the perspective of a man about his love for his wife, has been widely circulated via social media in recent years and is typically attributed to actor Brad Pitt. But Pitt didn't have a wife at the time the piece first appeared in 2013: his five-year marriage to actress Jennifer Aniston had ended in 2005, and although he was subsequently involved in a long-term relationship with actress Angelina Jolie, they did not get married until August 2014, when this item had already been circulating for more than a year. (As well, neither of Pitt's wives experienced the specific collection of physical and emotional problems described in the piece.)

We don't know who the original author of this bit of romantic fluffery was, but this item was making the social media rounds long before Brad Pitt's name became attached to it, and a rep for the actor confirmed for us that he had nothing to do with it. A number of linguistic issues in the piece suggest that it was either written by someone who is not a native speaker of English or it was imperfectly translated into English from another language.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.