Angelina Jolie has opened up about her 2016 split from Brad Pitt–with whom she shares six children–revealing how the experience changed her. In a new interview with French magazine Madame Le Figaro, Jolie spoke about her divorce, and how she’s been shaped by the experience.
According to an English translation of the interview from Lainey Gossip, Jolie was asked if she believes in destiny. “I do not know about destiny,” she replied. “But I’m certain that I’m in transition, and this is a homecoming, I’m coming back to myself. Because I was a little lost.”
When the magazine asked her to clarify the answer, Jolie was explicit about her breakup. “I think it was at the end of my relationship with Brad and then when we separated,” she said. “It was complicated, I didn’t recognize myself anymore, and I’d become, how do I say this, smaller, insignificant, even if I didn’t show it. I was profoundly, deeply sad, I was hurt. On the other hand, it was interesting to tap into this humility and sense of insignificance.
In the end, that’s human. And on top of that, I was dealing with some health issues. All of these things ground you and remind you of how lucky you are to be alive. It’s a lesson I pᴀss onto my children: the idea of renewal, and through it all, the possibility of joy. I had to rediscover the joy.”
Pitt has also recently spoke publicly about the couple’s famously contentious divorce. “A breakup of a family is certainly an eye-opener,” he told NPR. “I had to understand my own culpability in that, and what can I do better.”
