Just want my family to heal: Angelina Jolie opens up about divorce from Brad Pitt

Actor and human rights activist Angelina Jolie opened up about her separation from Brad Pitt, revealing that she feared for the safety of her children and her family before the divorce and now just wants the “whole family” to heal. 

Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016. At the time, she alleged that Pitt was drunk and abusive towards their then-15-year-old son, Maddox, while on a private plane from the US to Europe.

Asked if she feared for the safety of her children at the time, Jolie blatantly replied, “Yes, for my family. My whole family,” in a tell-all interview with The Guardian, published on September 4. 

Since her divorce from the Hollywood actor was finalised in 2019, the two are in the middle of their ongoing custody case. Pitt and Jolie are parents to Maddox, 20, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 13.  Maddox is not included in the ongoing custody battle because he is no longer a minor.

“I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions like the decisions I had to make lightly,” she told the paper. “It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children.”

Also Read: Focus on Angelina Jolie’s son Maddox amid talk of Cambodia adoption racket

Talking about the last five years, Jolie said the divorce had been “traumatic.” Furthermore, she said, “I mean, in some ways it’s been the last decade. There’s a lot I can’t say … I think at the end of the day, even if you and a few people you love are the only people who know the truth of your life, what you fight for, or what you sacrifice, or what you’ve suffered, you come to be at peace with that, regardless of everything going on around you.”

As the custody case continues, Jolie said she is hoping to “move forward” and heal, “including their dad.”

“I just want my family to heal. And I want everyone to move forward – all of us, including their dad,” she expresses. “I want us to heal and be peaceful. We’ll always be a family.”

Earlier, in July, a California judge ruled in Jolie’s favour to disqualify Judge John W. Ouderkirk, a private judge, from overseeing her custody case with her ex-husband Brad Pitt.

Jolie previously requested that Ouderkirk be removed from the case due to him having a previous relationship with Pitt’s attorney Anne C. Kiley and not disclosing the number of cases they had previously worked on together, per The Associated Press.