Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were together from 2005 until 2016, after which they engaged in a messy divorce battle.
Angelina Jolie quietly shared insight into her children’s relationship with their father and her ex-husband, Brad Pitt, after the brood of six all opted to send a clear message and drop his last name. The 51-year-old told Variety that she was glad her children “still like” her and wanted to be around her, as they encouraged her to pursue new opportunities outside of Los Angeles.
“I think my fighting spirit is finally back,” she explained to the publication. “I lost it for a bit. I got kind of taken down a little bit, and it’s coming back in large part thanks to my children, who are now older, and encouraging it.” Angelina shares kids Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 17, with the Fight Club star.
“My kids are almost all 18, so now they want to see me traveling the world, they want me to get out and do things,” she continued.
© WireImage“They know me more than anybody, and they still like me, which says a lot. I think they’re very encouraging of me kind of getting back to aspects of myself that maybe I hadn’t felt as free to do.”
Angelina added that she almost quit acting after her divorce, yet stuck with it for the sake of her kids. “I was focusing on directing, and I thought I’d be doing my international work,” she said.
“But then suddenly the only way to be home more and for short periods of time being away or to make a good amount of money was to go back to acting. I was only taking things that were short or close by, or I could take [my children].”
© Anadolu via Getty ImagesAngelina and Brad began dating in 2005, and tied the knot in 2014 before going their separate ways in 2016. The divorce proceedings continued for eight grueling years and included a bitter custody battle. In the years since their divorce, each of their six children have dropped Brad’s last name one-by-one, with Shiloh being the first to legally axe “Pitt” from her name.
While Maddox and Zahara recently filed to legally drop his name, Vivienne opted to leave off “Pitt” in her credit on the playbill for The Outsiders in 2024, and her twin brother chose to simply go by “Knox Jolie” during his high school graduation ceremony in June 2026.
Angelina has not been able to live overseas or move away from LA since her divorce, as she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I am here because I have to be here from a divorce, but as soon as [Vivienne and Knox are] 18, I’ll be able to leave,” she explained.
© FilmMagic“I have a house now to raise my children, but sometimes this place can be…that humanity that I found across the world is not what I grew up with here,” she continued. “I’ll spend a lot of time in Cambodia. I’ll spend time visiting my family members, wherever they may be in the world.”
© WireImageWhile Brad has largely kept quiet about his reported estrangement from his kids, the actor told GQ in 2017 that he wanted to be more present in their lives.
“It’s hit me smack in the face with our divorce: I gotta be more. I gotta be more for them. I have to show them. And I haven’t been great at it,” he said. “When I get in that busy work mode, I’m not hearing. I want to be better at that.”
