The actress and activist shares some insight about the toll her separation from Pitt has taken on her.
Angelina Jolie is sharing some insight into her divorce from Brad Pitt.
The actress and activist got candid, revealing that her separation from the actor has left her feeling "broken" in a new interview with The Guardian. Not going into specifics about her former relationship, Jolie is asked what the past five years have taken out of her.
"I mean, in some ways it’s been the last decade. There’s a lot I can’t say,” she expresses. "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."
"I’m not out of it,” she adds, amid her current custody battle, before being asked how she is doing. "It’s really hard to answer. How am I? I’m realizing that sometimes you can survive things, but not know how to feel and live in the same way. So it’s more about being open. I’m really trying to be open as a human being again."
Pitt and Jolie are parents to Maddox, 20, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 13.
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016. At the time, she alleged that Pitt was drunk and abusive towards then-15-year-old son, Maddox, while on a private plane. Pitt denied being physical towards any of their children, but admitted he had an alcohol problem and attended AA meetings after their separation. In November 2016, the FBI shared that no charges would be brought against the actor and cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Their divorce was finalized in 2019. The two, meanwhile, are in the middle of their ongoing custody case. ET confirmed this week that Pitt requested a review of a California appellate court's ruling to disqualify the private judge he and Jolie chose to oversee their custody dispute.
When asked by the outlet if she feared for the safety of her children at that time, she blatantly replies, "Yes, for my family. My whole family."
As for deciding to divorce from Pitt, she says she it was decision she didn't "make lightly."
"I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions like the decisions I had to make lightly," she says. "It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children."
As the custody case continues, Jolie says 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."
In July, Judge John Ouderkirk was disqualified from the custody case, vacating all of his decisions, including a previous ruling that granted Pitt more time with his and Jolie's five minor children.
In Pitt's new petition, obtained by ET this week, he argued that disqualifying Ouderkirk "effectively upended the constitutionally authorized temporary judging system in California," now throwing open "the door to disqualification challenges at any point during a case, even if the party raising the motion has long been on notice about the alleged grounds for disqualification."
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