Angelina opens up about Brad split .
Angelina Jolie – on a visit with her kids to Cambodia – opens up about life since her split from Brad Pitt
SHE’S no stranger to Cambodia: it’s where she started her epic journey as a mother, adopting her first child from an orphanage when she was in the country filming Tomb Raider all those years ago. She’s been to the lush southeast Asian land so often since then she’s even been granted citizenship – so it wasn’t all that unusual to see Angelina Jolie back again, her squad of six kids in tow.
Except that this time it was a little different: it was Angie’s first official appearance since September when she and husband Brad Pitt announced they were splitting, and those of us who believed they were happily-ever-afters all fell apart.
Yes, she went skiing with the kids over New Year (YOU, 19 January) but that was a holiday – she said nothing publicly, sticking to the slopes and the shops and not engaging with anyone but the family and her entourage.
Her visit to Siem Reap, a resort town in the northwest of Cambodia, was another story. The 41-year-old star spoke out for the first time since the start of the drama – and it’s clear she’s been through a lot.
In an interview with the BBC, Angelina speaks at length about her latest project, a movie she directed called First They Killed My Father, about the Cambodian genocide. But the interviewer then asks her how she’s doing personally – and Angie becomes visibly emotional.
“It’s been a very difficult time,” she says, unable to meet the interviewer’s eyes. “But we’re a family and we will always be a family. We will get through this time and hopefully be a stronger family for it.
“Many, many people find themselves in this situation,” she adds. “My whole family – we’ve all been through a difficult time.”
Then, in a sentence that many are interpreting as a sign there could yet be hope of a Brangelina reconciliation, she says, “My focus is my children – our children – and my focus is finding a way through.
“As I said we are and forever will be a family and so that is my – that is how I am coping.” “OMG,” one Brangelina fan tweeted, “she said OUR family! She still loves him and wants them to be a stronger family! Let’s hope for the best.” But it may be way too early to start hoping for anything. Replying to a question about how she gets through the day, Angelina smiles sadly. “I just want to get through the day. It’s been a difficult few months.” Of course, there’s plenty to fill those days when you have six kids. “At the moment I have two dogs, two hamsters and two of the children in my room and it’s wonderful – but yes, so I wake up wondering who’s going to let the dog out and who’s going to make pancakes and did everyone brush their teeth?” All six – Maddox (15), Pax (13), Zahara (12), Shiloh (10) and twins Knox and Vivienne (8) – are in Cambodia with their mom, supporting her as she presents her movie to the people of that country. The kids scrubbed up well for a screening of the film with the king of Cambodia, Norodom Sihamoni, and met the monarch at the royal residence, each one neat and smartly dressed for the occasion. Sources in both the Brad and Angelina camps say things are going better for everyone involved. “The kids are doing fine,” one insider close to the situation says. “They’re coping well.”
ANGELINA too seems to be doing fine. While it’s clear the divorce has taken a toll she’s a far cry from the gaunt and distraught woman she’s said to have been in the months after the split. Celebrity news sites spoke of her chainsmoking and battling to eat – but, while she’s clearly still reed slim, observers say she’s looking better than she has in a long time. Her hair is glossy, her skin is glowing and her eyes are bright.
Brad too has thrived since the split (YOU, 9 February) and insiders say the strain their relationship was under was affecting them physically.
“The incident on the plane involving Maddox [when Angie alleged Brad abused the boy] was the final straw. Things had been dissolving since they
married two years ago. Neither of them had been happy for a long time.”
Work has helped both of them recover – and Angelina’s new project is clearly close to her heart.
First They Killed My Father is based on author and human rights activist Loung Ung’s memoir and recounts her survival as a child under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. Led by Pol Pot, the ruthless communist rule is believed to have been responsible for the death of 1,7 million people through execution, starvation and disease. Loung, who eventually escaped to the USA, is a personal friend of Angelina.
The star’s new movie – which will have TOP LEFT: The kids join their mother for an audience with King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia. TOP RIGHT: Angelina greets the king. ABOVE: Maddox, who was born in Cambodia, shares a special moment with the monarch. BELOW: Angelina being interviewed by the BBC’s Yalda Hakim. Angie became visibly emotional when asked about her personal circumstances since her split from Brad Pitt. free screenings across Cambodia before it’s released on Netflix – isn’t just about the war, she says.
“I also wanted to focus on the love of family and on the beauty of the country and in fact I wanted to understand what my son’s birth parents may have gone through. I wanted to get to know Maddox better and the country better.” Maddox, she adds, persuaded her to make the film, which had been in the pipeline for years but languished on the back burner.
“He was the one who just called it and said he was ready and he wanted to work on it,” Angelina told The Guardian recently. “He read the script, helped with notes and was in production meetings.”
Cambodia’s king and several survivors of the brutal Khmer Rouge years were among 1 500 people invited to the first screening of Angelina’s movie. This is the second movie she’s made on the subject of genocide – 2011’s In The Land Of Blood And Honey centred on the Bosnian atrocities.
CAMBODIA was her awakening, Angelina says in the BBC interview. “I came to this country and I fell in love with its people and learnt its history and in so doing learnt how little I actually knew about the world. I’ll always be grateful to this country. I don’t think I ever could give back as much as this country has given me.”
Cambodia was the start of her lifelong TOP LEFT: The family sat in the front row during the premiere screening of Angie’s new movie in Cambodia’s ancient Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap. TOP RIGHT: Angelina, in a backless fuchsia gown, is applauded by the king and the queen mother, Monique. ABOVE: Flowers from the monarch. quest to help right the wrongs in the world and she’s made a point of taking her children along as often as she can to expose them to the “real world”.
Asked where she sees herself in five years’ time, Angie laughs. “I’ll have all teenagers then, right?” she says. “I would like to be travelling around the world visiting my children, hoping that they’re just happy and doing really interesting things, and I imagine in different parts of the world and I’ll be supporting them. “Everything I do I hope I represent the right things to my children and give them the right sense of what they’re capable of and the world as it should be seen. Not through the prism of Hollywood or through a certain kind of life but really take them into the world where they have a good sense and become rounded people.”
Dare we hope Brad might be back in the picture by then? S