Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie spent 12 years together and so the split left him feeling devastated.
There are many people among us who like to keep their feelings to themselves no matter how overwhelming they might be. It gives them a sense of security, a feeling of total control over themselves and their emotions. But there are those rare days when they cannot stop the dam, brimming with emotions, for too long, and they break.
Can you imagine Brad Pitt to be the kind of person who cries? He has always presented himself, both on and off-screen, as a rock-hard person who isn't very expressive when it comes to his feelings but everything changed after his split from ex-wife Angelina Jolie in 2016.
In a candid interview with Anthony Hopkins in 2019 for Interview Magazine, the Fight Club actor opened up about his inner-most self. Hopkins has been Pitt's co-star in Legends of the Fall (1994) and Meet Joe Black (1998). Talking about the time he felt overpowered by his emotions as he learned that Jolie wanted to end things, he said, "I am quite famously a not-crier. Is that a term? I hadn't cried in, like, 20, years, and now I find myself, at this latter stage, much more moved. Moved by my kids, moved by friends, moved by the news. Just moved."
The actor saw the change as a positive one because he added, "I think it’s a good sign. I don’t know where it’s going, but I think it’s a good sign."
He also spoke about "wrestling" with "blame." However, even when Hopkins asked him, he didn't specify what he was referring to and spoke about the act of "forgiveness" instead. He said, "I’m realizing, as a real act of forgiveness for myself for all the choices that I’ve made that I’m not proud of, that I value those missteps, because they led to some wisdom, which led to something else."
He added, "You can’t have one without the other. I see it as something I’m just now getting my arms around at this time in my life. But I certainly don’t feel like I can take credit for any of it." The 56-year-old actor labeled his alcoholism as an "escape" which got worse after the split.
In an interview with The New York Times he revealed that AA meetings helped him recover. He said, “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.” The Oscar winner said that the meetings helped him overcome the grief of divorce as well.
While he thought parting ways with his family was like "death" to him in the beginning, eventually, he felt like it was a “huge generator for change,” according to his first interview with GQ in 2017 after the split.
He said, “I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff or something. Something. And you realize that a lot of it is, um — cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I’m running from feelings. I’m really, really happy to be done with all of that.”
Once upon a time, both Pitt and Jolie were the power couple of Hollywood with their fans addressing them as Brangelina. After seven years of being together and then tying the knot in 2014, they became the ideal couple for the world but things weren't as they seemed between the two.
According to the Cheat Sheet, one of the reasons for them to split was Pitt's struggle with substance abuse and temper issues. Even after the divorce, Pitt and Jolie share a very tense relationship. An insider spoke to Us Weekly about the two and revealed, “Angelina still has a lot of resentment toward Brad. She wants him to be held accountable because she feels he turned her and the children’s lives upside down.”
Another reason for their divorce was their lifestyle which led to a lot of fights. A second insider revealed, “Before the divorce, the entire family led a very nomadic existence, and that was because of Angie’s restlessness." The insider added, “Brad wanted the kids to have stability while Angie always said they were giving the children an idyllic childhood by exposing them to different countries, languages and experiences.”
With a messy divorce and the ongoing tooth and nail battle for custody of their six kids, Pitt has finally moved on. No, it's not Jennifer Aniston but a model. Page Six confirmed that the actor is dating a 27-year-old German model, Nicole Poturalski.
References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/movies/brad-pitt-ad-astra.html
https://www.gq.com/story/brad-pitt-gq-style-cover-story
https://pagesix.com/2020/08/26/brad-pitt-and-german-model-nicole-poturalskis-relationship-confirmed/
