Angelina Jolie Talks Brad Pitt Divorce In Most Candid Interview Since Split

Angelina Jolie has opened up about how her family is coping in the wake of her divorce from Brad Pitt, speaking to Vanity Fair 10 months after the couple’s split was first announced.

The Oscar-winning actress features on the cover of magazine, and in her most candid interview since the break-up, she admits it’s “just been the hardest time”, revealing that her family are “just kind of coming up for air”.

At the time of the interview, Angelina and her six children had just moved into a new home in LA and the actress added: “[This house] is a big jump forward for us, and we’re all trying to do our best to heal our family.”

Addressing tabloid reports that suggested the couple’s split was due to “lifestyle” differences, Angelina insisted that this was not the case, praising her children for how they have coped with the situation.

“[Our lifestyle] was not in any way a negative. That was not the problem,” she said. “That is and will remain one of the wonderful opportunities we are able to give our children... They’re six very strong-minded, thoughtful, worldly individuals. I’m very proud of them.

“They’ve been very brave. They were very brave… In times they needed to be.

“They’re all just healing from the events that led to the filing... They’re not healing from divorce. They’re healing from some... from life, from things in life.” 

Turning her attention to the ways she’s coped, Angelina explained: “I was very worried about my mother, growing up—a lot. I do not want my children to be worried about me.

“I think it’s very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything’s going to be all right even when you’re not sure it is.”

This is only the second time the star has directly addressed the split, and her new comments are far more personal than those she made back in February, when she told the BBC that it had been a “very difficult time”.

While the legal proceedings were ongoing, Brad and Angelina spoke to the press only via their spokespeople, but Brad gave his first solo interview in May.

In it, he told GQ that he ditched boozing and smoking pot, which had “become a problem” in his marriage.

“I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something,” he said. “And you realise that a lot of it is, um—cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I’m running from feelings. I’m really, really happy to be done with all of that.

“I mean I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know—things I wasn’t dealing with. I was boozing too much. It’s just become a problem.”

Read Angelina’s full interview with Vanity Fair here.