Angelina Jolie is finally speaking about her life after filing for divorce from Brad Pitt last year.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, September 2017 issue, the Oscar winner opens up about being a single mother, their children, cooking lessons, and her the new chapter of her life.
The 42-year-old actress recently directed First They Killed My Father, a film adaptation of Loung Ung’s 2000 memoir about surviving the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, which was responsible for the deaths of nearly 2 million Cambodians. Jolie and Ung co-wrote the screenplay for the film, and will be shown on Netflix later this year, The Washing Post reports.
Here are some of revelations from the lengthy interview:
Jolie says she and Brad care about their family and both working towards the same goal
Though she did not discuss about her divorce into great detail, she did respond about rumors of Pitt being wary of the family’s frequent travelling and wanted a more stable life for the children. “That was not the problem. That is and will remain one of the wonderful opportunities we are able to give our children…They’re six very strong-minded, thoughtful, worldly individuals. I’m very proud of them.”
“We care for each other and care about our family, and we are both working towards the same goal,” she said when asked about the status of her relationship with Pitt.
She was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy
Jolie was diagnosed with hypertension last year and Bell’s palsy, a condition which results in sudden muscular weakness on one side of the face due to nerve damage or acute inflammation. The film director said acupuncture had helped her fully recover from facial paralysis.
“Sometimes women in families put themselves last until it manifests itself in their own health,” she shared.
In 2015, the Maleficent star revealed that she decided to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed after learning in 2013 that she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation, putting her at high risk for breast and ovarian cancers.
“I went into the actual surgery happy as they come,” she told the magazine. “I was skipping. Because at that point it was just preventative.”
Her children were involved in the production of her latest film
Her experiences in Cambodia inspired Jolie to learn more about global issues, which leads to various humanitarian efforts she does today. The country is also where she adopted her eldest son, Maddox, who is credited as a producer on First They Killed My Father, and the actress said it’s the reason the film got off the ground in the first place. “He was the one who said, ‘It’s time to do it.’”
According to Vanity Fair, her son, Pax, did on-set still photography, and her other children “became close playmates with the child actors” in the movie.
She and her father already reconciled
It’s not a secret that Jolie and her celebrity father, Jon Voight, had been estranged for years, but in the interview, the two have since reconnected and he’s being a good grandfather to her children.
“He’s been very good at understanding they needed their grandfather at this time,” she explained to the magazine. “I had to do a therapy meeting last night and he was just around. He knows kind of the rule—don’t make them play with you. Just be a cool grandpa who’s creative, and hang out and tell stories and read a book in the library.”
The latest issue of Vanity Fair hits the newsstands on August 8.
