Angelina Jolie: 'There's a Lot I Can't Say'

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce lasted longer than their marriage, and the custody battle is still going on. The couple married in August 2014, and Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016. It took three years to finalize the split, and they are still fighting over custody of the kids. Much of the news that leaks out about Jolie and the kids comes from court filings or anonymous sources, but she recently had a lengthy interview with Simon Hattenstone of the Guardian. The gist of the interview is that Jolie wants to move on and heal the family—including Pitt, her kids’ dad. And that she wants people to buy the book she wrote with child rights lawyer Geraldine Van Bueren and Amnesty International, Know Your Rights, which lays out just what rights kids have in many harrowing situations.

• Dramatic pause. The interview has a personal tone, as seen in this snippet: "What have the past five years taken out of her? There is a long pause. She cups her face in her hands, and looks ready to burst into tears. 'I mean, in some ways it’s been the last decade. There’s a lot I can’t say.'"
• Why the split? Jolie accused Pitt of being abusive with Maddox, their eldest son who is now 20. Pitt was cleared of any wrongdoing. At one point in the interview, Jolie says she feared for the safety of "my whole family."
• What’s Jolie up to? She’s focusing on humanitarian work, an interest she says is a natural offshoot of her mother’s values. Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of cancer in 2007.
• Beginning of the end? Jolie opened up a little bit about being abused by Harvey Weinstein. “It was beyond a pass, it was something I had to escape. I stayed away and warned people about him,” she said. Later, when Pitt wanted to work with Weinstein on Killing them Softly, Jolie felt minimized. “We fought about it,” she said.
• The kids. “I never wanted to babysit, I never had dolls, so it’s hilarious I’ve ended up with six children,” Jolie said of her large family.

(More Angelina Jolie stories.)