Angelina Jolie reveals how she tried to save her marriage to Brad Pitt
Angelina Jolie has opened up about her split from Brad Pitt on The Hollywood Reporter's podcast Awards Chatter, admitting she thought working together could save their marriage.
"We had met working together and we worked together well,” she said. “I wanted us to do some serious work together. I thought it would be a good way for us to communicate.”
The couple met in 2004 on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith. They went on to both star in the 2015 film By the Sea, which Jolie also directed.
“In some ways it was, and in some ways we learned some things,” she continued. “But there was a heaviness probably during that situation that carried on and it wasn't because of the film."
She also spoke about the personal difficulties she’d faced during their 12 year relationship. “Over the span of that decade, I did lose my mother. I did have my mastectomy, and I did then have an ovarian cancer scare and have that surgery as well, and other things of course that happened in life that you go through.
"A piece of art can be something that's healing or something that's difficult. I don't know. I'm glad we did that film because we did explore something together. Whatever it was maybe it didn't solve certain things, but we did communicate something that needed to be communicated to each other."
It's been over a year since the couple announced their separation (we can remember the day like it was yesterday - can't you?), but they still haven't completed their divorce.
In September 2016, Hollywood's power couple announced their split which was reportedly caused by Brad's drug and alcohol dependance. Since, Angelina was awarded sole custody of their six children. We prayed and begged the pair would work it out - and back in September it seemed they might have.
Biographer for the couple, Ian Halperin, spoke about the pair's couple counselling. Speaking to The Mail On Sunday, he said: “Brad took the first step forward, then they collapsed into each other’s arms."
Halperin went on: “There were a lot of tears, nothing was left on the table. They had it out, right there and then in this very modest house.
“In that moment they decided to make a fresh start. It was a ‘come to Jesus meeting’ that marked the beginning of a new phase in their relationship.
“Today, they are both feeling very positive. Angelina sees them as very much the new Burton and Taylor."
He finished: "They can’t live together but they can’t live apart. She has worked hard on herself and so has Brad. They are still in love with each other.”
In July, Angelina Jolie spoke out about her divorce with Brad Pitt in an interview with Vanity Fair. Then later, according to US Weekly, a source revealed that the actress is having second thoughts about ending her marriage.
“The divorce is off,” said the source. “They haven’t done anything to move it forward in several months and no one thinks they are ever going to.”
“She’s still so in love with him," the source added.
Ten months after the pair split, Ange told Vanity Fair that it's "just been the hardest time," for her and her family and that they are “just kind of coming up for air” right now.
The mother of six also spoke in depth about how her children have coped admirably with the situation, and that it was not the family's 'lifestyle' that was detrimental to them:
“[Our lifestyle] was not in any way a negative. That was not the problem," she started. "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."
She continued: “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.”
Sole custody of their six children was given to Angelina following the couple's filing for divorce at the end of last year. The seven of them have since moved into a new home in LA, something she says "is a big jump forward" for them all. The actress spoke about dealing with this hard time in the new house with her kids, noting she thinks "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.”
The actress and humanitarian has previously opened up to the BBC about life after her divorce.
"It was a very difficult time and we're a family. And we will always be a family," she said.
"And we will get through this time and hopefully be a stronger family for it."
Rex FeaturesAnge on... The beginning
The pair famously met on the set of 2005's Mr & Mrs Smith, when Brad was married to Jennifer Aniston.
On her first impressions of Brad, she said: "I didn't know much about exactly where Brad was in his personal life, but it was clear he was with his best friend, someone he loves and respects.
"And so we were both living, I suppose, very full lives. ... I think we were the last two people who were looking for a relationship. I certainly wasn't. I was quite content to be a single mom."
But "Brad was a huge surprise to me. I, like most people, had a very distant impression of him from ... the media," she says.
"Because of the film, we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened. I think a few months in I realised, 'God, I can't wait to get to work.' ... Anything we had to do with each other, we just found a lot of joy in it together and a lot of real teamwork. We just became kind of a pair."
They didn't start thinking about a relationship right away, she says. "It took until, really, the end of the shoot for us, I think, to realise that it might mean something more than we'd earlier allowed ourselves to believe. And both knowing that the reality of that was a big thing, something that was going to take a lot of serious consideration."
RexAnge on... The moment that changed everything
After some time dating, it was Angelina's son, Maddox, now 15, who helped seal the deal. One day, Maddox "just out of the blue called him Dad," Angelina Jolie once said. "It was amazing. We were playing with cars on the floor of a hotel room, and we both heard it and didn't say anything and just looked at each other. So that was probably the most defining moment, when he decided that we would all be a family."
Getty ImagesAnge on... Brad being a real man
In 2011, Angelina said: "I am very lucky with Brad. He is a real gentleman, but he is also a real man's man. He's got the wonderful balance of being an extraordinary, great, loving father, a very, very intelligent man and physically he's a real man."
Getty ImagesAnge on... How Brad changed her life
"Brad has expanded my life in ways I never imagined. We built a family. He is not just the love my life, he is my family. I hold that very dear. I don't have a lot of friends I talk to. He is really the only person I talk to."
PA PhotosAnge on... The vows on their wedding day
Angelina told NBC's Tom Brokaw: "We were fortunate enough to be in that unusual situation, we got married with our children and they were part of the ceremony and they wrote some of the vows. It was all of us agreeing to be together and to just commit to this life together. Not because we had to, not because anything was missing in our lives... because we were absolutely sure we felt that much of a family. It was really lovely."
Talking about the vows, Angelina said" "it was very sweet what they [the kids] came up with."
"They did not expect us never to fight, but they always made us promise to say sorry if we do.
"So they said 'do you?' and we said: 'We do!'
"It does feel different, it feels nice to be husband and wife."
Rex FeaturesAnge on... Their honeymoon
Did they head to the Maldives or Necker Island? Nope, the pair spent their honeymoon filming scenes for their movie, By The Sea.
"It was our honeymoon," the actress added of the time she, Pitt and their six children spent shooting the movie on the Maltese island of Gozo.
"It felt like the appropriate thing to do on our honeymoon," she joked. "We wanted to be free, we wanted to play, we wanted to try things, we wanted to push each other, we wanted to be artists and see what we could make."
Angelina Jolie directed the movie and wrote the screenplay herself. She revealed that the couple called the script the "crazy one" for years.
Afterwards she assured people that the movie, about a miserable marriage, was not real life: "It's not autobiographical," she told Vogue. "Brad and I have our issues, but if the characters were even remotely close to our problems we couldn't have made the film."
PA PhotosAnge on... Being lucky having Brad
Talking about how she deals with the work life balance, she said: "I feel very fortunate, there are so many mothers who don't have the ability I do to work and then have time off or to take turns with their partner, I have a great husband in Brad, so I feel very lucky."
Getty ImagesAnge on... Having to direct her husband in a movie
"It feels a little daunting," Angelina said, of her movie Into The Sea. "We haven't worked together for ten years. But all of the reasons why people say we should be scared of it, we feel that's exactly why we have to do this - because we can. So we're going to go boldly."
And she didn't seem to be scared about the prospect of bossing Brad around, either. "He's a pretty strong actor! It's going to be interesting. He's a really great artist, such an interesting artist, and of course he's the man I love, so I think we're going to have a great time."
Getty ImagesAnge on... Wanting to be a better wife
After her nuptials, she said she wanted to be a better partner. "We have more moments where I say, 'I'm going to be a better wife,'" she said. "'I'm going to learn to cook.' and [Brad] says, 'Oh, honey, know what you're good at, know what you're not.' But I do have, my like, 'No, no, no, I'm going to get this wife thing down.' He knows my limitations and where I'm a good wife and a good mom."
PA PhotosAnge on... How Brad helped after her double mastectomy
"I knew through the surgeries that he was on my side and that this wasn't something where I was going to feel less of a woman, because my husband wasn't going to let that happen."
Rex FeaturesAnge on... Getting through the hard times
Speaking about marriage, Angelina had her say: "I think it's a reality of marriage that you go through hard times and that you have to embrace those hard times and challenges and know that it's a part of your marriage"
She went on "It's the pulling through together that actually makes the bond".
Rex FeaturesAnge on... Being apart from Brad
"He was supportive from a distance and it was quite romantic in a way."
"We decided to be of that time when we could imagine he was in the European theatre and I was in the Pacific theatre and we wrote hand-written letters to each other that were very connecting for us, thinking of the people that were separated for months if not years at a time back then."
PA PhotosAnge on... How having kids changed things
On the topic of how the kids changed her relationship with Brad, she said: “You’re not lovers or boyfriend and girlfriend as much as you are a family.”
“I’m just happy the kids are healthy, I married their dad, our family’s solid, and my health is good. I’m just grateful every day.”
PA PhotosAnge on... Challenging times
“I think it’s a reality of marriage that you go through hard times and that you have to embrace those hard times and those challenges, and know that that’s part of your marriage. It’s the pulling through together that actually makes the bond that is the great bond. And if it was all easy, and if it was just two people cohabitating then it’s not very interesting, is it?”
PAAnge on... Kissing in front of the kids
"There are no secrets at our house. We tell the kids, 'Mom and Dad are going off to kiss.' They go, 'Eww, gross!' But we demand it."
Getty ImagesAnge on... Brad's dad skills
"It's such a beautiful and sexy quality in a man when he takes his responsibilities as a father very seriously. I still get very emotional when I watch Brad play with the children — he is so naturally devoted and joyful around them."
Rex FeaturesAnge on... the divorce that shocked the world
Speaking publicly for the first time about her divorce, Angelina said: "It was a very difficult time and we're a family. And we will always be a family. And we will get through this time and hopefully be a stronger family for it."
When asked how she was coping, she answered: "Many, many people find themselves in this situation. My whole family - we've all being through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children, and my focus is finding this way through and as I said we are and forever will be a family and so that is my, that is how I am coping.I am coping with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer."
