The Gozitan woman whose wedding plans were disrupted when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt took over Mġarr ix-Xini in Gozo to shoot their film two years ago is now offering to mediate in the celebrity couple’s divorce.

Maria Arpa, originally from Marsalforn, told The Sunday Times of Malta she felt that since their paths had crossed once already, she could mediate in their divorce.

She said that she had no way of contacting the celebrity couple directly, however.

Ms Arpa, 55, and her husband, David Ellis, 53, are leading mediators in the UK, where they live.

“We have a track record of helping couples either to reconcile or to end their relationship with the least amount of human suffering,” she told this newspaper when contacted over her offer to mediate the Brangelina rupture.

“We can provide testimonies to working with high-net-worth people in a discreet, compassionate and empathic way which minimises the need for a costly and hostile legal battle and keeps confidentiality, so that the children are not exposed to adverse publicity.”

The announcement of the couple’s divorce came a little over two years after they tied the knot in a ceremony before a limited number of friends and family members in a Romanesque chapel on the grounds of Château Miraval, their estate in the south of France.

The couple’s six children, three of them adopted, accompanied the bride and groom. Master tailor Luigi Massi, of Atelier Versace, made Ms Jolie-Pitt’s wedding dress, incorporating designs from her children’s drawings.

Ms Arpa says that getting a divorce is a painful, life-changing event that is difficult to face, especially when children are involved.

“The legal systems we rely on for justice perpetuate hostility in the face of conflict, and divorces are a place where this often plays out to the detriment of everyone.”

“When a couple decide to divorce, the greatest gift they can give their children out of a sad situation is to demonstrate that conflict does not necessarily have to end in misery and hatred. It is possible to dialogue out of conflict so that we do not inflict injury, loss or harm on ourselves or others.”

Ms Arpa and Mr Ellis were elbowed out of the way when the Jolie-Pitts took over the picturesque Mġarr ix-Xini to shoot their film By the Sea.

But Ms Arpa says that despite the inconvenience, her wedding turned out to be great.

“Our wedding turned out really well. The hardship was due to the fact that we were left in a position to re-arrange our wedding plans, and it was unkind that Brangelina did not show some empathy. Ironically, a few weeks later, US President Barack Obama personally apologised to a couple for exactly the same thing.

“It was a shame that Brangelina did not show the same humility.

“Of course, in the end, it was just an inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, and I do not hold grudges,” Ms Arpa said.

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