I WAS BOOZING TOO MUCH, BRAD PITT SAYS
In his first interview since wife Angelina Jolie filed for divorce in September, Brad Pitt opened up on his history with drinking and what his life is like post-split in the new issue of GQ Style magazine.
Through the interview, he only mentions Jolie by name once, and it's to recommend her movie about Cambodia, First They Killed My Father: “You should see Angie's film.”
The 53-yer-old actor is surprisingly candid: “I was boozing too much,” he admitted, suggesting the rumours that his alcoholism led to the split were true. “It's just become a problem. And I'm really happy it's been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I've got my feelings in my fingertips again.”
He added, “I mean, we have a winery. I enjoy wine very, very much, but I just ran it to the ground. I had to step away for a minute. And truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good.”
When asked how he quit drinking, Pitt said, “Don't want to live that way anymore.”
“For me this period has really been about looking at my weaknesses and failures and owning my side of the street,” he said. “I'm an a--hole when it comes to this need for justice. I don't know where it comes from, this hollow quest for justice for some perceived slight. I can drill on that for days and years. It's done me no good whatsoever. It's such a silly idea, the idea that the world is fair. And this is coming from a guy who hit the lottery, I'm well aware of that. I hit the lottery, and I still would waste my time on those hollow pursuits.”
Pitt revealed that, at first, it was “too sad” to live at the Hollywood Hills home he shares with his children, so he spent time staying on a friend's floor in Santa Monica — and with close friend David Fincher.
Although he admits to being “disconnected,” Pitt said it's his children he worries about when it comes to how his relationship with Jolie was depicted in the media. The couple have 15-year-old Maddox, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10, and eight-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.
Pitt said he and Jolie are working on a custody arrangement, but it hasn't been an easy process. He said he started therapy in a bid to become a better man.
“Personally, I can't remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn't boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something. And you realize that a lot of it is, um — cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I'm running from feelings.”