Angelina Jolie Back On Top

Angelina Jolie on her break-up with Brad Pitt and how she draws strength from her children

- Marianne Bilkey

Gracing the global stage of red carpet premieres for her latest film, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Angelina Jolie not only stunned in a dazzling display of Hollywood glamour, she opened up about the “transition period” she has worked through since her split from Brad Pitt three years ago. Describing her renewal as “like a homecoming, a return to myself”, the 44-year-old mother of six has talked candidly about the pain of her marriage breakdown and the joy of raising her children.

“I was a little lost … I think it happened at the end of my relationship with Brad, and then at the beginning of our separation,” she said in an interview with French magazine supplement Madame Figaro published on October 3. “It was a complicated moment where I didn’t recognised myself anymore. I felt a deep and real sadness. I was hurt.”

But, thanks to the love and support of her children – sons Maddox, 18, Pax, 15, and Knox, 11, and daughters Zahara, 14, Shiloh, 13, and Vivienne, 11 – Jolie says she has emerged renewed from the difficult postmarriage period.

On the red carpet with Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Vivienne and Knox at the film’s September 30 Los Angeles premiere, Jolie was asked where she drew her strength from. “My kids,” she answered. According to Jolie, the children, who have been a constant presence during her world press tour, love seeing her portray “strong” characters and have revelled in being a part of the promotion of the Maleficent sequel.

“What’s really moving to me is that they want to see me strong, and so it’s less to see me in the film, but they’re just happy I will be strong and having fun,” she told WHO.