Focus on her children has helped Jolie at difficult time

ANGELINA JOLIE and Brad Pitt have steered clear of the limelight since their highly public divorce.

After keeping a low-profile, Jolie has now spoken out publicly about the divorce for the first time. The actor said breaking up with Pitt after 10 years together had been “very difficult”.

Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September, citing irreconcilable differences.

The couple officially got together in 2006 after playing married spies in Mr and Mrs Smith, but they only married in 2014.

“It was very difficult. Many people find themselves in this situation,” Jolie said.

“My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.

“We are and forever will be a family and so that is how I am coping. I am coping with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer.“

The actor, who is also a UN refugee agency special envoy, made the remarks before the premiere of First They Killed My Father, a film she directed which explores the Cambodian genocide.

It was Jolie’s first major public appearance since the divorce and she was accompanied by her six children.

The film is a true-life account of the Khmer Rouge genocide from the perspective of a child. It is based on author and human rights activist Loung Ung’s account of her survival as a child under the 1975-1979 communist Khmer Rouge regime.

Jolie has a special attachment to Cambodia, having adopted her eldest son, Maddox, from the country.

Jolie and Pitt have six children together, Maddox, 15, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10 and 8-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

When asked where she saw herself in five years, Jolie said she would have a house of teenagers by then.

“At that stage, I hope just standing,” she said, joking about being outnumbered by her offspring.

“In five years’ time, 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 many different parts of the world, and I’ll be supporting them.” – The Independent

In the past, Angelina and Brad, together with their children. Speaking out for the first time since their divorce, she said she coped by thinking they will ‘forever be a family’.