Billy Bob Thornton Explains Famous ‘Blood Vial’ Necklaces With Angelina Jolie

Billy Bob Thornton is setting things straight when it comes to the notorious “blood vial” necklaces he and Angelina Jolie used to wear during their relationship.

The Landman star, 70, revealed to Rolling Stone in a new interview that while he and his ex-wife did sport jewelry featuring each other’s blood, it was nothing like how it got spun in the media at the time.

“We each had a little locket, literally with a drop of blood in them,” Thornton explained in an interview published Wednesday. “That’s a romantic little idea, and that’s all that was. But by the time it’s over, we’re vampires. We live in a dungeon, we drink each other’s blood, and this kind of stuff.”

Thornton and Jolie had a whirlwind relationship after meeting on the set of Pushing Tin in 1999. The two would go on to elope a year later, shortly after Thornton ended his engagement to Laura Dern, and they adopted son Maddox in 2002. In 2003, Jolie and Thornton divorced, and the Sling Blade actor has now been married to Connie Angland since 2014.

Thornton said that despite the fast and furious nature of his relationship with the Maleficent star, he and Jolie remain on good terms.

“And of course, Angelina [Jolie] and I had a great time together. That was one of the greatest times of my life,” he told the magazine. “She and I are still very, very close friends. And that was the one that ended up being a really civilized breakup. We simply split up because our lifestyles were so different.”

This isn’t the first time Thornton has commented on the blood vial necklace lore surrounding his relationship with Jolie, addressing the rumors in 2014. [A] vial of blood is very simple. Angie came home one day with a kit she bought,” he said at the time, as per E! News. “You know those lockets you buy that are clear and you put a picture of your grannie in it or something like that and wear it around your neck? That’s what it was.”

“She thought it would be interesting and romantic if we took a little razor blade and sliced our fingers, smeared a little blood on these lockets and you wear it around your neck just like you wear your son or daughter’s baby hair in one,” he continued. “Same thing. From that we were wearing quart jars of blood around our necks.”