‘I am coping’: Emotional Angelina Jolie speaks for the first time about ‘difficult’ split from Brad and insists ‘we’ll always be a family’
Angelina Jolie has opened up for the first time in public about the ‘difficult’ breakup of her marriage to Brad Pitt and the effect it has had on their six children.
The Hollywood star is in Cambodia with the kids promoting her new film and appeared to tear up when asked about her personal life during an interview with BBC News.
‘I don’t want to say very much about that, except to say it was a very difficult time and we are a family, and we will always be a family,’ she said, visibly emotional.
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Emotional interview: Angelina Jolie has spoken publicly for the first time about her split from Brad Pitt telling the BBC: ‘It was a very difficult time…. and we will always be a family’
‘It was very difficult,’ the actress, 41, added. ‘Many people find themselves in this situation. My whole family have all been through a difficult time.’
A bitter custody battle initially played out in the media after Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt last September and sought full custody of their children following an alleged incident on board a private jet as the family returned to Los Angeles from France.
But the celebrity couple eventually reached an agreement in early January to seal the custody documents as they endeavor to resolve their issues and reach a divorce settlement.
‘My focus is my children, our children,’ she explained to the BBC.
‘We are and forever will be a family and so 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,’ she said.
‘Many people find themselves in this situation. My whole family have all been through a difficult time,’ the actress, 41, said about the weeks since she filed for divorce in September
Family affair: Jolie, 41, is in Cambodia for the premiere of her new film and brought along her children with Pitt – pictured Saturday with Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, and Shiloh, 10
Focused: Jolie, with Vivienne and Knox, eight, Maddox and Pax on Sunday, said: ‘I am coping with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer
A family affair: Angelina was accompanied by daughter Shiloh at the Cambodian premiere of her film First They Killed My Father
Special occasion: It was a very special occasion for the actress and director
On Saturday, Jolie made her first official appearance in Siem Reap, Cambodia, for the premiere of First They Killed My Father, about life in Cambodia under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge as seen through the eyes of a child.
She was joined by her children Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10 and eight-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.
Maddox was adopted in 2002 from an orphanage in Cambodia, where Jolie filmed the Tomb Raider movie.
Full circle: Asked where she sees herself in five years time, she said she hopes to be ‘traveling around the world visiting my children’ and hoping they’re ‘doing really interesting things’
Big honor: Jolie and all six of her kids including eight-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne (far left) attended an audience with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni
She acknowledged that in a way she has come full circle since first traveling to Cambodia 17 years ago for Tomb Raider and where she first became a mother with the adoption of her oldest son.
She went on to adopt Zahara from Ethiopia and Pax from Vietnam.
She also gave birth to three biological children with Pitt – Shiloh, who was born in Namibia, and Vivienne and Knox who were born in France.
Split: Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt last September and the former couple are in the midst of a custody battle over their children
Jolie has embraced a role as a humanitarian and UNICEF ambassador traveling to visit refugees and touring some of the most impoverished areas of the globe.
She has often taken one or more of her children with her.
Asked where she sees herself being in five years time, she replied: ‘I would like to be traveling around the world visiting my children, hoping that they’re just happy and doing really interesting things and I imagine in many different parts of the world and I’ll be supporting them.’
She added: ‘Everything I do I hope … I represent the right things to my children and give them the right sense of what they’re capable of and the world as it should be seen. Not through the prism of Hollywood or through a certain kind of life but really take them into the world where they have a really good sense and become rounded people.’
New movie: Jolie’s movie First They Killed My Father details life under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge as seen through the eyes of a child and will be released on Netflix later this year
