Brad CONFESSES
Massive booze problem wrecked my marriage Kids are delicate but I wasn’t great dad I couldn’t stay home alone
BRAD Pitt has spoken out for the first time since his split from Angelina Jolie, revealing his battle with alcohol before going into therapy.
Eight months after the actress filed for divorce, ending their two-year marriage and 12-year relationship, the Allied star has broken his silence about his life.
Speaking to America’s GQ Style magazine, Pitt opened up about his struggles with drink and how he has now become a better father to his children, who he was cleared of abusing by the FBI.
Calling himself a “professional” drinker, the 53-year-old told how he was forced to “step away” following his bitter split from Angelina in September.
He said: “I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something. You realise that a lot of it is cigarettes, you know, pacifiers.
“I’m really, really happy to be done with all of that. I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know, things I wasn’t dealing with. I was boozing too much. It’s become a problem.
“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 enjoy wine very, very much but I just ran it to the ground. I had to step away for a minute.
“Truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good.”
But after the painful and public split from Angelina he now admits he doesn’t want to “live that way any more”.
CALAMITOUS
Asked about his drinking now, the Oscar winner said: “Cranberry juice and fizzy water. I’ve got the cleanest urinary tract in all of LA, I guarantee you.
“But the terrible thing is I tend to run things into the ground. That’s why I’ve got to make something so calamitous. I’ve got to run it off a cliff.”
Pitt, worth an estimated £185million, said after the break-up he realised several home truths: “I’m really good at cutting myself off and it has been a problem. I need to be more accessible, especially to the ones I love.”
Asked if it was difficult to give up cannabis, the World War Z star replied “No”: “When you’re a stoner, you get these really stupid ideas.” Discussing how he coped with the break-up, Pitt said: “I just started therapy. I love it. I went through two therapists to get to the right one.”
According to reports in the US his whole family has sought counselling since the split.
Angelina, 41, said to be worth £125million, filed for divorce in September demanding custody of their six children amid claims she had become increasingly worried about the actor’s strict parenting.
Sources close to the actress claimed she was furious with the way “Brad was parenting the children”, adding that “she was extremely upset with his methods”.
It was later announced that Pitt was being probed over claims that he had an altercation with eldest son Maddox, 15,
I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka
on a private jet. An anonymous caller made the allegations which led to the FBI taking over the investigation, as the incident took place while in flight. Angelina filed for divorce five days later. However, after two months Pitt was cleared of any wrongdoing.
The couple are still to have their custody arrangements finalised along with how their assets are divided.
Pitt told GQ that, initially, he didn’t want to a divorce, adding: “The first urge is to cling on. Then you’ve got a cliché: ‘If you love someone, set them free.’ Now I know what it means, by feeling it.
“It means to love without ownership. It means expecting nothing in return. But it sounds good written. It sounds good when Sting sings it. It doesn’t mean
f*** all to me until you live it. That’s why I never understood growing up with Christianity – don’t do this, don’t do that. It’s all about don’ts.
HATRED
“I was like: ‘How the f*** do you know who you are and what works for you if you don’t find out where the edge is, where’s your line?’
“I live my life, I have my family. I do my thing, I don’t do anything illegal, I don’t cross anyone’s path.”
Asked how he had made sense of the past six months, he replied: “Family first. People on their death beds don’t talk about what they obtained or were awarded. They talk about their loved ones or regrets. I say that as someone who has let the work take me away. Kids are so delicate. They absorb everything. They need to have their hand held and things explained. They need to be listened to. When I get in that busy work mode, I’m not hearing. I want to be better at that.”
Discussing if there was anything he could now change he replied: “I wish I could just change my name.”
The Fight Club star, who is currently focusing on his new film War Machine, was eventually given rights to see his kids but under supervision.
“I was really on my back and chained to a system when Child Services was called. After that, we’ve been able to work together to sort this out. We’re both doing our best.
“I heard one lawyer say, ‘No one wins in court – it’s just a matter of who gets hurt worse.’
“It seems to be true. You spend a year focused on building a case to prove your point and why you’re right and why they’re wrong. It’s just an investment in vitriolic hatred.
“I just refuse. And, fortunately, my partner in this agrees. It’s just very, very jarring for the kids to suddenly have their family ripped apart.”
Pitt said he and Angelina agreed to handle their divorce “with great care and delicacy” out of consideration for their children. “Our focus is that everyone comes out stronger and better people – there is no other outcome.” Following the split Pitt was unable to live in his house for a few months. “It was too sad to be here at first, so I went and stayed on a friend’s floor, a little bungalow in Santa Monica. “This house was always chaotic and crazy – voices and bangs coming from everywhere – and then, as you see, there are days like this: very, very solemn. I get up every morning and I make a fire. When I go to bed, I make a fire, just because it makes me feel life. I just feel life in this house.”
Pitt admitted that he had struggled to cope with his emotions.
“I’m personally very retarded when it comes to taking inventory of my emotions. I’m much better at covering up.
“I grew up with a father-knowsbest/war mentality – the father is allpowerful, super-strong – instead of really knowing the man and his own self-doubt and struggles.
“It has 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.”