Angelina Jolie split from ex-husband Brad Pitt in 2016, creating a major change in the lives of the couple’s six kids, Maddox, 18; Pax, 15; Zahara, 14; Shiloh, 13; and twins Knox and Vivienne, 11. During a new interview with Harper’s BAZAAR, Jolie opened up about her children, sharing that they have “been through a lot.”
“The part of us that is free, wild, open, curious can get shut down by life. By pain or by harm,” she said. “My children know my true self, and they have helped me to find it again and to embrace it. They have been through a lot. I learn from their strength. As parents, we encourage our kids to embrace all that they are, and all that they know in their hearts to be right, and they look back at us and want the same for us.”
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The 44-year-old also discussed her own journey over the past several years, explaining that she has “scars” as a result of the struggles she has gone through.
“My body has been through a lot over the past decade, particularly the past four years, and I have both the visible and invisible scars to show for it,” she said. “The invisible ones are harder to wrestle with. Life takes many turns. Sometimes you get hurt, you see those you love in pain, and you can’t be as free and open as your spirit desires. It’s not new or old, but I do feel the blood returning to my body.”
Jolie has been candid about her personal life in several recent interviews, telling E! News last month that there have been times when she has “not felt safe.”
“There have been times in my life where I have felt — and maybe I’ve hidden them well from the public — where I have not felt free, I have not felt safe, I have not felt like free of harm,” she said. “I have felt small. I have felt cornered. And it has taken a lot to find that again, probably more of that today than I was in the last four years.”
The mom of six was delving into the idea of safety after being asked about the perception of her character Maleficent, a role she reprises in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which was released in October.
“I think Maleficent is wild, I think there is that thing in all of us that is just not safe and not fine, that wants to just have fun and be our best self,” the actor explained.
Photo Credit: Getty / Kevin Winter
