Angelina Jolie (51) hasn't been on a date with anyone since her split from Brad Pitt in 2016. The Oscar winner, who rarely speaks about her private life, revealed this in an interview with "Yahoo Entertainment". "To be honest, I haven't been on a date since my divorce a decade ago", she said. "Somehow I feel like that aspect of my life isn't the focus when I'm concentrating on my children and my family."
However, her new role gave her a fresh perspective on things. In the film "Couture", she plays Maxine, an American filmmaker working during Paris Fashion Week who falls in love with the character Anton, portrayed by Louis Garrel. To play Maxine, the actress had to reconsider her own attitude. "I needed a moment to realize: She can love her daughter and devote herself to her daughter - while at the same time needing this [romantic love, editor's note] as a woman and receiving it as a woman", Jolie explained.
Perhaps that might even be very healing for her character, Jolie continued. The Oscar winner also spoke openly about herself: "Life has broken me a little", she admitted. She needs to "live again. Be free again".
During her stay in France, her film character receives a diagnosis of a serious illness. This aspect also has a very personal dimension for Jolie: Her mother Marcheline Bertrand died in 2007 from the consequences of ovarian and mammary cancer. Angelina Jolie herself underwent a preventive, bilateral mastectomy in 2013.
Her daughters provide the impetus
Jolie draws the courage to turn back to her own life primarily from her three daughters Zahara (21), Shiloh (20), and Vivienne (17). They talk to her "like young women", she said. In doing so, she becomes aware of what she wishes for her daughters and what she herself may have lost.
Her daughters bring her "back to my old self", the actress said. "I think they now want me to not just be 'Mom'", she said according to the interview. There is "another space for me to be that woman again who isn't just a mother".
Jolie had already hinted to the trade magazine "Variety" that things are starting anew both professionally and privately. Before her divorce, she had "pretty much stopped acting" and wanted to focus on directing as well as her international work. But then acting suddenly became the only way to be home more often and only be away briefly while also earning good money.
Fighting spirit returns
"I think my fighting spirit is finally back", the "Salt" star told the magazine. For a while she had lost it, but now it's coming back - in large part thanks to her now older children, who encourage her.
Jolie and Pitt met in 2004 on the set of the film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith". After two years of marriage, Jolie filed for divorce in 2016 - the step was preceded by an incident aboard a private plane. The ex-partners fought in court for eight years before they settled their divorce in December 2024. They have six children from the relationship: Maddox (24), Pax (22), Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne (17).
