All kinds of nasty rumours have been flying about since news first broke about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt splitting up after a decade together.
All kinds of nasty rumours have been flying about since news first broke about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt splitting up after a decade together. With six children in the mix and strong rumours that Brad Pitt had been abusive including a possible incursion on a flight with son Maddox, it lead to FBI investigations and sent the tabloid industry into overdrive until it was revealed that Brad Pitt is in the clear. Other stories suggested that a historic court battle is in the making as the two actors hire top lawyers to settle the issue.
While Brad Pitt emerged first at the premiere of Allied and later at the Golden Globes ceremony this year to introduce the film, Moonlight, which he co-produced, Angelina Jolie has been out of sight until now.
Speaking to BBC World Service in Cambodia where she was present to promote her new film First They Killed My Father, which is based on the “true-life account of the Khmer Rouge genocide” and which she directed, Jolie looked nothing like a glamourous movie star, having switched gears from actor to director.
“I came to this country and I fell in love with its people and learned its history, and in doing so learned how little I actually knew about the world,” she told the BBC. “This country for me was my awakening. I’ll always be very grateful to this country. I don’t think I ever could give back as much as this country has given me.”
Jolie, accompanied by her six children, did address her split with Brad Pitt but briefly and thoughtfully. “It was very difficult,” Jolie said. “Many people find themselves in this situation. My whole family has been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children. 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.”
Her appearance on BBC World instead of Ellen or Jimmy Fallon is being construed by some as Jolie’s increasing aversion to Hollywood. While acting projects have dried up, some stories suggest that her future lies, not with filmmaking, but in a much more serious position at the United Nations. Time will tell if Jolie really is bidding farewell to Hollywood but it sure seems like it.
