She has everything: love, beauty, fame, children. Having passed a turbulent youth, she managed to build a life according to her own rules. And he continues to act decisively, whether it is about adoption, a mastectomy, or … about parting with her husband. On September 19, Angelina Jolie filed for divorce. “I am very saddened by this, but what really matters now is the well-being of our children,” said Brad Pitt. In this family, children always come first. Jolie spoke about this at our meeting in 2014.
For 12 years they were “bred” many times. The reasons were different – the difficult temper of the actress, jealousy of Pitt’s ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, with whom the actor remained on friendly terms until Jolie gave him an ultimatum: “either I or she.”
In 2007, the actress’s mother died, and Angelina fell into depression. In addition, the fear of her own death began to haunt her – Jolie’s relatives on the female side (mother, aunt and grandmother) died of cancer. In 2013, Jolie, fearing a predisposition to cancer, decided to remove both breasts, and a few years later, her ovaries. Due to operations and severe stress, the actress began to lose weight rapidly. Brad Pitt all this time tried to be close to his wife.
Having gone through difficult times, the couple legalized their relationship in 2014. Immediately after the wedding, Pitt and Jolie starred in the film “Cote d’Azur” – about a married couple in crisis, who goes on a journey to return to the relationship of former romance. The heroes of the film fail to save the marriage. During filming, Jolie and Pitt themselves were on the verge of a divorce.
We quarrel with him, swear in front of the camera, but resentment, pain and anger remain even after the shooting is over.
“Imagine, we quarrel with him, swear in front of the camera, but resentment, pain and anger remain even after the shooting is over,” Angelina Jolie said about the filming of Côte d’Azur. – Irritation, dissatisfaction with each other and everything in the world. The atmosphere is heated to the limit. And what happened to my film crew – you wouldn’t wish it on your enemy. They looked at us and did not know where to turn their eyes, they wanted to hide, run away when we sorted things out. You know how it happens in life when close people quarrel before your eyes, turn your soul inside out; you suddenly learn some intimate things about them and their relationship. This is very unpleasant. But my husband and I are proud of ourselves. That they found the courage in themselves, took a chance and nevertheless coped with a difficult task. For some time now, I like to repeat: everything that does not kill us makes us stronger.
Despite the optimistic mood of Jolie, the problems in the family have not been resolved. Jolie tried more than once to persuade her husband to adopt more children (she planned to bring three brothers from Syria). However, Pitt categorically refused this idea. In March of this year, the actress fired a nanny who flirted with her husband. Since then, at all official events, Jolie has appeared alone or with children.
Rumors have recently leaked to the press about Pitt’s possible romance with Marion Cotillard, Pitt’s partner in the film Five Seconds of Silence. They say that the Frenchwoman was the reason for the divorce. This information has not yet been confirmed. In the divorce papers, Jolie indicated the reason – “irreconcilable differences.” According to Jolie’s lawyer, the actress is asking the court to leave her six children with her.
“My favorite time is to come home for dinner, feed the children, and then read books to them at night. It’s the best time ever for any mother, isn’t it?” Angelina Jolie told us about this in June 2014.
Psychologies: Looking at you today, you involuntarily wonder: is this the same crazy girl who shocked the whole world with her adventures?
Angelina Jolie: Yes, what are you. I’m still a very wild girl, it’s just that now this part of me belongs only to Brad and our family adventures with him. And, to tell the truth, I later regretted a lot of what I did in my youth. In a good way, I shouldn’t even exist in the world after everything that I did with myself then. I don’t want to go into it, but everyone is informed by the tabloids even without me … that there were really dark times in my life.
And what made you switch to the light side?
A. D .: I am convinced that no matter what happens to us in life, we ourselves decide how these circumstances will affect us. There was a period when I was completely fixated on my grievances and experiences. And then I visited places where mines explode, where there is a war, where people are in real need, they are starving. Many have lost children and parents. When you see this, it’s like waking up. You start thinking about others, and this is the best way to become happier. In this, as in many other things, I try to be like my mother: I have never met another such selfless person.
Were you very close to her?
A. D .: She was my best friend. And she dedicated herself to us, her children. No job was more important to her than planning our birthdays or decorating our Easter baskets. And also, unlike me, she absolutely did not know how to get angry: sometimes she will start cursing at us – and it happened for something, believe me – but in the end it all ends in laughter. But the one who offended her children simply ceased to exist for her. Mom fought cancer for many years, but lived to see the time when my brother and I became adults and got on with our lives. Maybe she held on to make sure we were all right.
I am one of those people who try to get stronger and live on, and then suddenly burst into tears over a bowl of porridge for no reason
And it was the early death of your mother that prompted you to decide to have a mastectomy?
A. D .: I was very upset by her departure, although outwardly it was not very noticeable: I am one of those people who try to get stronger and live on, as if nothing had happened, and then suddenly burst into tears over a bowl of porridge for no reason. But grief helped me realize that I should never expose my children to this. So when I learned that I had inherited the defective gene, I did my best to prevent the disease.
Your courageous decision to write an article in the New York Times shocked people almost more than the news of the operation itself.
A. D .: I am confident in my choice and decided to share the experience – just so that other women know what options they have. And I was deeply moved by the response: strangers turn to me with such kind words, they say that they are inspired by my courage. Although you should not consider this only my merit, because I would not have been able to go through all this if it were not for Brad’s support. Now it’s somehow even strange to remember that I used to consider myself a loner and thought that I was stronger on my own than in a pair.
So you don’t think so now?
A. D .: Yes, as it turned out, it was not about me – it was just necessary to meet that very man. I have long suspected that if I can seriously live together with someone, then only with someone who, like me, even if it is arrogance, seeks to change the world for the better. And the one who makes me constantly develop myself. Brad is just that.
Our relationship is built not only on the fact that we are good together (although this is true), but also on the fact that we are both ready to give all our strength to what is important to us. Let’s say that now we are both simply overwhelmed by the Ukrainian events. I’ve been there, I know someone from there. It frightens me that in Kiev in February the people had their say, and then it was as if their initiative was taken away from them, and now we hear the voices of some activists of indistinct origin. And I don’t understand if it’s a people.
If I come home tired after a hard day, Brad will definitely tell me how proud he is of me.
But while I’m worried, Brad turns to the article “Ukraine” in the encyclopedia. He and I always have different approaches: I, fired up with some idea, immediately rush to implement it, and Brad begins to study the issue in detail. Do you know how he got into photography? Instead of just buying a camera and shooting for fun, like most amateurs, he studied the theory and understood the intricacies.
You say that Brad helps you change for the better. How exactly?
A. D .: Because he encourages the right things in me. Well, for example, if I come home tired after a hard day, he will definitely say how proud he is of me. If I’m writing a column, he’s always the first to read drafts and give advice. If I dress up for a photo shoot, he lets me know that this is all fine, but for him I am much more attractive when I am in my pajamas in the morning with the children or just sitting on the couch with a book. But, perhaps, the main thing that he has changed is my attitude towards pregnancy. After all, I was determined never to give birth: I considered it wrong, because then someone whom I could adopt would be left an orphan, worried about how this would affect my adopted children.
And how did Brad manage to convince you?
A. D .: I knew that Brad wanted his children, genetically his own. But soon after we started living together, I felt that he accepted Maddox and Zakhara completely, just like his children, and this somehow calmed me. It became clear that he would not love them less if we had children of our own. And then I wanted to get pregnant. I don’t know why, I can’t explain in words. Now I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. The main thing is that now we have three wonderful guys who otherwise would not have been born.
You are surprisingly mobile for a family with six children, moving from country to country every now and then. Do kids like this nomadic lifestyle?
A. D .: I wanted them to grow this way, and it seems that there are no objections on their part. I am glad that they willingly rush to pack their bags and easily get used to a new place – and it does not matter whether it is a suite in Manhattan or a tent in Africa. They consider the whole world their home. Once I watched Madd run around the market in Addis Ababa, and he was not at all embarrassed by either poverty or the fact that everyone around was African, and he was Asian. That’s the way it should be. While I am generally not inclined to become attached to the material, there is one thing that is very dear to me – this is the purse where our passports are kept: both American, and French, and Vietnamese, and Ethiopian, and my documents from the UN … This is sort of a symbol of our family.
What other principles do you follow in your upbringing?
A. D .: principles? Yes, as a mother, I am practically unscrupulous! In my youth, I didn’t imagine myself as a parent at all, and at first Madd, and then Zahara, I didn’t even adopt – I just took it with me. I took it to help children without parents grow up. Even now I can not say that I am educating someone. Should I, with my rebellious past, dictate rules, principles?
But now I began to think: soon the children will grow up and begin to move away … Therefore, we have such a plan with Brad: to instill in them as many values as possible until they stop listening to us. Luckily, we have a few more years to spare. In the meantime, I just enjoy seeing how many things happen to them for the first time in their lives: I admire their ability to get pure, unsophisticated pleasure from everything! Or here’s another one of my favorite times: get home for dinner, feed the kids, and then read books to them at night. It’s actually the best time for any mother, isn’t it?
Birth of Brangelina
Angelina Jolie Voight was born on June 4, 1975 in Los Angeles (USA) in the family of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. Jolie is the second name of the actress, which became her last name. The parents separated when Angelina was a year old, and her mother raised the children alone (brother James is three years older than her sister). She first appeared in films at the age of seven. Critics noticed Angelina Jolie in the thriller Hackers (1995). (On the set of this film, she met her first husband, Jonny Lee Miller.) But the drama Gia (1998) made the actress a star. A year later, she won an Oscar for her role in James Mangold’s Girl, Interrupted. She began an affair with actor Billy Bob Thornton: they quickly got married and quickly divorced. In 2005, she co-starred with Brad Pitt in the action comedy Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Pitt soon divorced Jennifer Aniston and adopted adopted children Jolie, Maddox and Zahara. In 2006, the couple had a daughter, Shilo, a year later they adopted a Vietnamese boy, Pax, and the twins Knox and Vivienne were born in 2008.