Angelina Jolie bares it all

Actress goes nude, talks divorce from Brad, being an outsider growing up and finally becoming her true self

OSCAR-WINNING actress Angelina Jolie appeared nude under a sheer white sheet as she posed for photographer Sølve Sundsbø for the December edition of Harper’s Bazaar.

And the Maleficent actress was just as open in her interview, where she stated that she was not popular in high school, has emotional scars, loves her “restless” spirit and would be living overseas with her children if it were not for ex Brad Pitt who wants the little ones in Los Angeles.

She split from Pitt in 2016 and their divorce is still being dealt with in terms of finances, though they can officially call themselves single by law.

They had three biological children together: Shiloh, Vivienne and Knox. And they raised three adopted children: Maddox, Pax and Zahara. Maddox is already over 18 and studying at a university in South Korea.

Also in her wide-ranging interview, Jolie talked about the operations she has had.

She elected to have a double mastectomy and her ovaries removed because a heightened risk of cancer of those organs.

“My body has been through a lot over the past decade, particularly the past four years and I have the visible and invisible scars to show for it,” she said.

And then she seemed to talk about her heartbreak over Pitt.

“The invisible ones are harder to wrestle with. Life takes many turns. Sometimes you get hurt, you see those you love in pain and you can’t be as free and open as your spirit desires.

“It’s not new or old, but I do feel the blood returning to my body.”

And she said she feels like her true self. “The part of us that is free, wild, open, curious can get shut down by life. By pain or by harm.

“My children know my true self, and they have helped me to find it again and to embrace it.”

And she hinted strongly that divorcing Pitt has been hard on the kids. “They have been through a lot. I learn from their strength.

“As parents, we encourage our kids to embrace all that they are and all that they know in their hearts to be right, and they look back at us and want the same for us.”

Jolie shares custody of five of her six children with Pitt. “Knowing our true self is a very important question for all of us. Especially a child. I think kids need to be able to say, ‘Here’s who I am, and what I believe.’ We can’t prevent them from experiencing pain, heartache, physical pain, and loss. But we can teach them to live better through it.”

She also dislikes the pressures put on mothers to be perfect.

“Labelling people and putting them into boxes isn’t freedom. Difference and diversity are what I value most in my family and in others. I don’t want to live in a world where everyone is the same and I imagine that’s true for everyone reading this. I want to meet people I’ve never met before and learn things I don’t know.

“The challenge today is to embrace our differences. And not to be fooled by efforts to divide us or make us fear others.

“We’re seeing a retreat of values worldwide. Many governments are less willing to stand up for the kinds of values that previous generations fought and died to secure. When governments stand back, people have to lead the way, as they are in different parts of the world.”

And the LA native touched on her A prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages tattoo. “I got it when I was 20. I was with my mom one evening and I was feeling lost. I was restless; always. I still am. We were driving to dinner and she talked about spending time with Tennessee Williams and how much she loved his words. She told me he wrote that, about the wild at heart.

“We drove to a tattoo parlour, and I got it inked on my left arm. What she did for me that night was to remind me that the wild within me is all right and a part of me.”

Jolie has never talked much about her childhood.

She grew up in Beverly Hills, but not in a mansion; rather she shared an apartment with her mother, Marcheline, and her brother, James, after her movie star father Jon Voight left.

It was not easy for her to blend in at Beverly Hills High School, she told the magazine.

“At school I wasn’t that popular person; I was a punk. I loved leather, PVC and fishnets. Those were my three favourite fabrics in my early twenties. I remember the first time I wore PVC pants. I was waiting for an audition, sitting in the sun in LA.

“By the time it was my turn, my pants had fused together. I didn’t get the part. But I loved those pants.

“I wore something similar when I married Jonny (Lee Miller).”

And Jolie touched on how she feels she has matured.

“In my youth, I focused on what I didn’t have. But as I travelled in my early twenties, my awakening was realising the freedoms I had in comparison to many people around the world.

“I’d experienced a childhood free of war. And since then I’ve had the freedom to build my family, to create art and to play the characters I have.

“It’s one of the reasons I’ve invested in schools for girls in different countries.”