Wikipedia wearing all-black clothing, going out moshing,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelina_Jolie
Early life and family
Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the
daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline
Bertrand. She is the sister of actor James Haven,
and the niece of singer-songwriter Chip Taylor[2]
and geologist and volcanologist Barry Voight.[3]
Her godparents are actors Jacqueline Bisset and
Maximilian Schell.[4] On her father's side, Jolie is
of German and Slovak descent,[5][6] and on her
mother's side, she is of primarily French
Canadian, Dutch, and German ancestry.[5] Like
her mother, Jolie has stated that she is part
Iroquois,[7] although her only known indigenous
ancestors were 17th-century Hurons.[5][8]
After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and
her brother lived with their mother, who had
abandoned her acting ambitions to focus on
raising her children.[9] Her mother raised her
Catholic, but did not require her to go to
church.[10] As a child, she often watched films
with her mother and it was this, rather than her
father's successful career, that inspired her
interest in acting,[11] though at age five she had
a bit part in Voight's Lookin' to Get Out
(1982).[12] When Jolie was six years old,
Bertrand and her live-in partner, filmmaker Bill
Day, moved the family to Palisades, New
York;[13] they returned to Los Angeles five years
later.[9] Jolie then decided she wanted to act
and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre
Institute, where she trained for two years and
appeared in several stage productions.
Jolie first attended Beverly Hills High School,
where she felt isolated among the children of
some of the area's affluent families because her
mother survived on a more modest income. She
was teased by other students, who targeted her
for being extremely thin and for wearing glasses
and braces.[11] Her early attempts at modeling,
at her mother's insistence, proved
unsuccessful.[14][15] She then transferred to
Moreno High School, an alternative school,
where she became a "punk outsider,"[14]
and experimenting with knife play with her live-
in boyfriend.[11] She dropped out of her acting
classes and aspired to become a funeral
director,[12] taking at-home courses to study
embalming.[16] At age 16, after the relationship
had ended, Jolie graduated from high school and
rented her own apartment, before returning to
theater studies,[9][14] though in 2004 she
referred to this period with the observation, "I
am still at heart—and always will be—just a punk
kid with tattoos."[17]
As a teenager, Jolie found it difficult to
emotionally connect with other people, and as a
result she self-harmed,[18] later commenting,
"For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself
and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling
some kind of release, it was somehow
therapeutic to me."[19] She also struggled with
insomnia and an eating disorder,[16] and began
experimenting with drugs; by age 20, she had
used "just about every drug possible,"
particularly heroin.[20] Jolie suffered episodes of
depression and twice planned to commit
suicide—at age 19 and again at 22, when she
attempted to hire a hitman to kill her.[12] When
she was 24, she experienced a nervous
breakdown and was admitted for 72 hours to
UCLA Medical Center's psychiatric ward.[12]
Two years later, after adopting her first child,
Jolie found stability in her life, later stating, "I
knew once I committed to Maddox, I would
never be self-destructive again."[21]
Jolie has had a lifelong dysfunctional relationship
with her father, which began when Voight left
the family when his daughter was less than a
year old.[22] She has said that from then on their
time together was sporadic and usually carried
out in front of the press.[23] They reconciled
when they appeared together in Lara Croft:
Tomb Raider (2001), but their relationship again
deteriorated.[9] Jolie petitioned the court to
legally remove her surname "Voight" in favor of
her middle name, which she had long used as a
stage name; the name change was granted on
September 12, 2002.[24] Voight then went
public with their estrangement during an
appearance on Access Hollywood, in which he
claimed Jolie had "serious mental problems."[25]
At that point, her mother and brother also broke
off contact with Voight.[26] They did not speak
for six and a half years,[27] but began rebuilding
their relationship in the wake of Bertrand's death
from ovarian cancer on January 27, 2007,[26][28]
before going public with their reconciliation
three years later.[26]
Personal life
Relationships and marriages
Jolie had a serious boyfriend for two years from
the age of 14. Her mother allowed them to live
together in her home, of which Jolie later said, "I
was either going to be reckless on the streets
with my boyfriend or he was going to be with me
in my bedroom with my mom in the next room.
She made the choice, and because of it, I
continued to go to school every morning and
explored my first relationship in a safe way."[163]
She has compared the relationship to a marriage
in its emotional intensity, and said that the
breakup compelled her to dedicate herself to her
acting career at the age of 16.[164]
During filming of Hackers (1995), Jolie had a
romance with British actor Jonny Lee Miller, her
first lover since the relationship in her early
teens.[12] They were not in touch for many
months after production ended, but eventually
reconnected and married soon after in March
1996. She attended her wedding in black rubber
pants and a white T-shirt, upon which she had
written the groom's name in her blood.[165]
Though the relationship ended for good the
following year, Jolie remained on good terms
with Miller, whom she called "a solid man and a
solid friend".[16] Their divorce, initiated by Jolie
in February 1999, was finalized shortly before
she remarried the next year.[166][167]
Prior to her marriage to Miller, Jolie began a
relationship with model-actress Jenny Shimizu
on the set of Foxfire (1996). She later said, "I
would probably have married Jenny if I hadn't
married my husband. I fell in love with her the
first second I saw her."[168] According to
Shimizu, their relationship lasted several years
and continued even while Jolie was romantically
involved with other people.[169] In 2003, when
asked if she was bisexual, Jolie responded, "Of
course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow,
would I feel that it's okay to want to kiss and
touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely!
Yes!"[170]
Jolie with her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt, at the
81st Academy Awards in February 2009, in which
each was nominated for a leading performance
After a two-month courtship, Jolie married actor
Billy Bob Thornton on May 5, 2000, in Las Vegas.
They had met on the set of Pushing Tin (1999),
but did not pursue a relationship at that time as
Thornton was engaged to actress Laura Dern,
while Jolie was reportedly dating actor Timothy
Hutton, her co-star in Playing God (1997).[167]
As a result of their frequent public declarations
of passion and gestures of love—most famously
wearing one another's blood in vials around their
necks—their marriage became a favorite topic of
the entertainment media.[171] Jolie and
Thornton announced the adoption of a child
from Cambodia in March 2002, but abruptly
separated three months later.[172] Their divorce
was finalized on May 27, 2003. When asked
about the sudden dissolution of their marriage,
Jolie stated, "It took me by surprise, too, because
overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we
had just nothing in common. And it's scary but ...
I think it can happen when you get involved and
you don't know yourself yet."[17]
Jolie was involved in a well-publicized Hollywood
scandal when she was accused of having caused
the 2005 divorce of actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer
Aniston. She had fallen in love with Pitt during
filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), but dismissed
allegations of an affair,[173] saying, "To be
intimate with a married man, when my own
father cheated on my mother, is not something I
could forgive. I could not look at myself in the
morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a
2
man who would cheat on his wife."[170] Jolie
and Pitt did not publicly comment on the nature
of their relationship until January 2006, when
she confirmed that she was pregnant with his
child.[174]
During their twelve-year relationship,
"Brangelina"—a portmanteau coined by the
entertainment media—were the subject of
worldwide media coverage.[175] After the initial
scandal subsided, they became one of
Hollywood's most glamorous couples.[176] Their
family grew to include six children, three of
whom were adopted, before they announced
their engagement in April 2012.[177] Jolie and
Pitt married on August 23, 2014, at their estate
Château Miraval in Correns, France.[178] She
subsequently took the name "Jolie Pitt".[179]
After two years of marriage, the couple
separated in September 2016. In her divorce
filing, Jolie requested physical custody of their
children.[180] On June 6, 2018, a new temporary
custody agreement was established between
Jolie and Pitt after the court's order against
Jolie.[181]
Jolie's children
1. Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt
o male, born August 5, 2001 (age 17),
in Cambodia
o adopted March 10, 2002, by Jolie
o adopted early 2006 by Pitt
2. Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt
o male, born November 29, 2003 (age
14), in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
o adopted March 15, 2007, by Jolie
o adopted February 21, 2008, by Pitt
3. Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt
o female, born January 8, 2005 (age
13), in Awasa, Ethiopia
o adopted July 6, 2005 by Jolie
o adopted early 2006 by Pitt
4. Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt
o female, born May 27, 2006 (age 12),
in Swakopmund, Namibia
5. Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt
o male, born July 12, 2008 (age 10), in
Nice, France
6. Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt
o female, born July 12, 2008 (age 10),
in Nice, France
On March 10, 2002, Jolie adopted her first
child,[182] seven-month-old Maddox Chivan,[24]
from an orphanage in Battambang,
Cambodia.[183] He was born as Rath Vibol on
August 5, 2001,[184] in a local village.[16] After
twice visiting Cambodia, while filming Lara Croft:
Tomb Raider (2001) and on a UNHCR field
mission, Jolie returned in November 2001 with
her husband, Billy Bob Thornton, where they
met Maddox and subsequently applied to adopt
him.[185] The adoption process was halted the
following month when the U.S. government
banned adoptions from Cambodia amid
allegations of child trafficking.[185] Although
Jolie's adoption facilitator was later convicted of
visa fraud and money laundering, her adoption
of Maddox was deemed lawful.[186] Once the
process was finalized, she took custody of him in
Namibia, where she was filming Beyond Borders
(2003).[185] Jolie and Thornton announced the
adoption together, but she adopted Maddox
alone,[172][187] and raised him as a single
parent following their separation three months
later.[172][188]
A pregnant Jolie with director Clint Eastwood at
the Cannes premiere of Changeling in May 2008
Jolie adopted a daughter, six-month-old Zahara
Marley, from an orphanage in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, on July 6, 2005.[189][190] Zahara was
born as Yemsrach on January 8, 2005, in
Awasa.[191][192] Jolie initially believed Zahara
to be an AIDS orphan,[193] based on official
testimony from her grandmother,[194] but her
birth mother later came forward in the media.
She explained that she had abandoned her
family when Zahara became sick, and said she
thought Zahara was "very fortunate" to have
been adopted by Jolie.[191] Jolie was
accompanied by her partner, Brad Pitt, when she
traveled to Ethiopia to take custody of
Zahara.[189] She later indicated that they had
together made the decision to adopt from
Ethiopia,[195] having first visited the country
3
earlier that year.[196] After Pitt announced his
intention to adopt her children,[197] she filed a
petition to legally change their surname from
Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which was granted on January
19, 2006.[192] Pitt adopted Maddox and Zahara
soon after.[198]
In an attempt to avoid the unprecedented media
frenzy surrounding their relationship, Jolie and
Pitt traveled to Namibia for the birth of their first
biological child.[175] On May 27, 2006, she gave
birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, in
Swakopmund.[199] They sold the first pictures
of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images
with the aim of benefiting charity, rather than
allowing paparazzi to make these valuable
photographs.[198] People and Hello! purchased
the North American and British rights to the
images for $4.1 and $3.5 million respectively, a
record in celebrity photojournalism at that
time,[200] with all proceeds donated to
UNICEF.[201]
On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a son, three-
year-old Pax Thien, from an orphanage in Ho Chi
Minh City, Vietnam.[202] He was born as Pham
Quang Sang on November 29, 2003, in HCMC,
where he was abandoned by his biological
mother soon after birth.[203] After visiting the
orphanage with Pitt in November 2006, Jolie
applied for adoption as a single parent, because
Vietnam's adoption regulations do not allow
unmarried couples to co-adopt.[202] After their
return to the U.S., she petitioned the court to
change her son's surname from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt,
which was approved on May 31.[204] Pitt
subsequently adopted Pax on February 21,
2008.[205]
At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008, Jolie
confirmed that she was expecting twins. For the
two weeks she spent in a seaside hospital in Nice,
France, reporters and photographers camped
outside on the promenade.[206] She gave birth
to a son, Knox Léon, and a daughter, Vivienne
Marcheline, on July 12, 2008. The first pictures of
Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People
and Hello! for a reported $14 million—the most
expensive celebrity photographs ever taken. All
proceeds were donated to the Jolie-Pitt
Foundation.[207]
Cancer prevention treatment
On February 16, 2013, at age 37, Jolie underwent
a preventive double mastectomy after learning
she had an 87% risk of developing breast cancer
due to a defective BRCA1 gene.[208] Her
maternal family history warranted genetic
testing for BRCA mutations: her mother, actress
Marcheline Bertrand, had breast cancer and died
from ovarian cancer, while her grandmother
died from ovarian cancer.[209][210] Her aunt,
who had the same BRCA1 defect, died from
breast cancer three months after Jolie's
operation.[211] Following the mastectomy,
which lowered her chances of developing breast
cancer to under 5 percent, Jolie had
reconstructive surgery involving implants and
allografts.[209] Two years later, in March 2015,
after annual test results indicated possible signs
of early ovarian cancer, she underwent a
preventive oophorectomy, as she had a 50% risk
of developing ovarian cancer due to the same
genetic anomaly. Despite hormone replacement
therapy, the surgery brought on premature
menopause.[210]
"I choose not to keep my story private because
there are many women who do not know that
they might be living under the shadow of cancer.
It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get
gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they,
too, will know that they have strong options."
—Jolie on her reasons for speaking out about her
mastectomy[208]
After completing each operation, Jolie discussed
her mastectomy and oophorectomy in op-eds
published by The New York Times, with the aim
of helping other women make informed health
choices. She detailed her diagnosis, surgeries,
and personal experiences, and described her
decision to undergo preventive surgery as a
proactive measure for the sake of her six
children.[208][210][212] Jolie further wrote, "On
a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman.
4
I feel empowered that I made a strong choice
that in no way diminishes my femininity."[208]
Jolie's announcement of her mastectomy
attracted widespread publicity and discussion on
BRCA mutations and genetic testing.[213] Her
decision was met with praise from various public
figures,[214] while health campaigners
welcomed her raising awareness of the options
available to at-risk women.[215] Dubbed "The
Angelina Effect" by a Time cover story,[216]
Jolie's influence led to a "global and long-lasting"
increase in BRCA gene testing:[217] the number
of referrals tripled in Australia and doubled in
the UK, parts of Canada, and
India,[217][218][219] as well as significantly
increased in other European countries and the
U.S.[220][221][222] Researchers in Canada and
the UK found that despite the large increase, the
percentage of mutation carriers remained the
same, meaning Jolie's message had reached
those most at risk.[217] In her first op-ed, Jolie
had advocated wider accessibility of BRCA gene
testing and acknowledged the high costs,[223]
which were greatly reduced after the U.S.
Supreme Court, in a June 2013 ruling, invalidated
BRCA gene patents held by Myriad
Genetics.[224][225]
In the media
Public image
As the daughter of actor Jon Voight, Jolie
appeared in the media from an early age.[23]
After embarking on her own career, she earned
a reputation as a "wild child", which contributed
to her early success in the late 1990s and early
2000s.[226] Celebrity profiles routinely covered
her fascination with blood and knives,
experiences with drugs, and her sex life,
particularly her bisexuality and interest in
sadomasochism.[226][227] In 2000, when asked
about her outspokenness, she stated, "I say
things that other people might go through.
That's what artists should do—throw things out
there and not be perfect and not have answers
for anything and see if people understand."[227]
Another contributing factor of her controversial
image were tabloid rumors of incest that started
when Jolie, upon winning her Oscar, kissed her
brother on the lips and said, "I'm so in love with
my brother right now."[12] She dismissed the
rumors, saying, "It was disappointing that
something so beautiful and pure could be turned
into a circus,"[228] and explained that, as
children of divorce, she and James relied on one
another for emotional support.[12]
Jolie's reputation began to change positively
after she, at age 26, became a Goodwill
Ambassador for the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, later commenting,
"In my early 20s I was fighting with myself. Now
I take that punk in me to Washington, and I fight
for something important."[102] Owing to her
extensive activism, her Q Score—the industry's
measure of celebrities' likability—nearly
doubled to 25 between 2000 and 2006.[102] Her
recognizability grew accordingly; by 2006, she
was familiar to 81% of Americans, compared to
31% in 2000.[102] She became noted for her
ability to positively influence her public image
through the media, without employing a
publicist or an agent.[229] Her Q Score remained
above average even when, in 2005, she was
accused of ending Brad Pitt's marriage to
Jennifer Aniston,[230] at which point her public
persona became an unlikely combination of
alleged homewrecker, mother, sex symbol, and
humanitarian.[231] A decade later, Jolie was
found to be the most admired woman in the
world in global surveys conducted by YouGov in
2015 and 2016.[232][233]
Jolie's general influence and wealth are
extensively documented. In a 2006 global
industry survey by ACNielsen in 42 international
markets, Jolie, together with Pitt, was found to
be the favorite celebrity endorser for brands and
products worldwide.[234] Jolie was the face of St.
John and Shiseido from 2006 to 2008, and a
decade later became a spokesmodel for Guerlain.
Her 2011 endorsement deal with Louis Vuitton,
reportedly worth $10 million, was a record for a
single advertising campaign.[235][236] Jolie was
among the Time 100, a list of the most influential
5
people in the world as published by Time, in
2006 and 2008.[237][238] She was named the
world's most powerful celebrity in Forbes's
Celebrity 100 issue in 2009, and, though ranked
lower overall, was listed as the most powerful
actress from 2006 to 2008 and 2011 to
2013.[239][240] Forbes additionally cited her as
Hollywood's highest-paid actress in 2009, 2011,
and 2013, with estimated annual earnings of $27
million, $30 million, and $33 million
respectively.[69][241][242]
Appearance
Jolie at the New York premiere of A Mighty Heart
in June 2007; several of her tattoos are visible
Jolie's public image is strongly tied to her
perceived beauty and sex appeal.[243] Many
media outlets, including Vogue, People, and
Vanity Fair, have cited her as the world's most
beautiful woman, while others such as Esquire,
FHM, and Empire have named her the sexiest
woman alive; both titles have often been based
on public polls in which Jolie places far ahead of
other celebrity women.[244] Her most
recognizable physical features are her many
tattoos, eyes, and in particular her full lips, which
The New York Times considered as defining a
feature as Kirk Douglas's chin or Bette Davis'
eyes.[245] Among her estimated 20 tattoos are
the Latin proverb quod me nutrit me destruit
("what nourishes me destroys me"), the
Tennessee Williams quote "A prayer for the wild
at heart, kept in cages", four Buddhist Sanskrit
prayers of protection,[246][247] a twelve-inch
tiger, and geographical coordinates indicating
the birthplaces of her husband and children.[248]
Over time, she has covered or lasered several of
her tattoos, including "Billy Bob", the name of
her second husband.[246]
Professionally, Jolie's status as a sex symbol has
been considered both an asset and a hindrance.
Some of her most commercially successful films,
including Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and
Beowulf (2007), overtly relied at least in part on
her sex appeal,[249][250] with Empire stating
that her "pneumatic figure", "feline eyes", and
"bee-stung lips" have greatly contributed to her
appeal to cinema audiences.[251] Conversely,
Salon writer Allen Barra agreed with critics who
suggested that Jolie's "dark and intense
sexuality" has limited her in the types of roles
she can be cast in, rendering her unconvincing in
many conventional women's roles,[49] while
Clint Eastwood, who directed her Oscar-
nominated performance in Changeling (2008),
opined that having "the most beautiful face on
the planet" sometimes harmed her dramatic
credibility with audiences.[252]
Beyond her career, Jolie's appearance has been
credited with influencing popular culture at large.
In 2002, AfterEllen founder Sarah Warn
observed that many women of all sexual
orientations had publicly expressed their
attraction to Jolie, which she considered a new
development in American culture, adding that
"there are many beautiful women in Hollywood,
and few generate the same kind of
overwhelming interest across genders and
sexual orientations that she does".[253] Jolie's
physical attributes became highly sought-after
among western women seeking cosmetic
surgery; by 2007, she was considered "the gold
standard of beauty",[254] with her full lips
remaining the most imitated celebrity feature
well into the 2010s.[255][256] After a 2011
repeat survey by Allure found that Jolie most
represented the American beauty ideal,
compared to model Christie Brinkley in 1991,
writer Elizabeth Angell credited society with
having "branched out beyond the Barbie-doll
ideal and embraced something quite
different".[257][258] In 2013, Jeffrey Kluger of
Time agreed that Jolie has for many years
symbolized the feminine ideal, and opined that
her frank discussion of her double mastectomy
redefined beauty.[216]
BIOGRAPHY WEBSITE
https://www.biography.com/people/angelina-
jolie-9356782
6
Early Life
Actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie Voight
was born on June 4, 1975, in Los Angeles,
California, to actor Jon Voight and actress
Marcheline Bertrand. She rose to stardom in the
1990s. She began acting at a young age, studying
at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute while in
her early teens. Jolie later attended New York
University.
Humanitarian Efforts
A devoted humanitarian, Angelina Jolie
was made a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN
Refugee Agency in 2001. She has made headlines
for her work to obtain aid for refugees in
Cambodia, Darfur and Jordan, to name just a few.
In 2005, Jolie received the Global
Humanitarian Action Award from the United
Nations Association of the USA for her activism
on behalf of refugee rights. She has continued to
draw attention to global issues.
Marriages and Health Issues
Famous for her off-screen romances,
Jolie has been married three times. She married
Hackers co-star Jonny Lee Miller in 1995. The
couple divorced in 1999. The following year, Jolie
married Academy Award-winning actor Billy Bob
Thornton. That union lasted until 2003. Jolie met
actor Brad Pitt, during the making of Mr. and Mrs.
Smith in 2004. At the time, Pitt was married to
Friends star Jennifer Aniston, and his affair with
Jolie prompted their divorce, resulting in a
Hollywood scandal that dominated tabloids for
years. Referred to as "Brangelina," Jolie and Pitt
became one of the most sought after Hollywood
couples.
In 2002, Jolie adopted a son from Cambodia and
named him Maddox. Three years later, she
adopted a daughter, Zahara. In 2005, Pitt filed
paperwork to adopt both of Jolie's children. The
couple's first biological daughter, Shiloh, was
born in Namibia in 2006. Jolie, Pitt and their
children had traveled there to avoid the media
frenzy that seemed to follow them wherever
they went.
In March 2007, Angelina Jolie added a new
member to her family. She adopted a 3-year-old
boy from a Vietnamese orphanage and named
him Pax Thien. Jolie then gave birth to twins,
Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, on July 12,
2008, in a seaside hospital in southern France.
The rights for the first images of the twins were
sold to People and Hello! magazines for $14
million—making them the most expensive
celebrity pictures ever taken.
Jolie experienced a great personal loss in early
2007, when her mother died of ovarian cancer at
the age of 56 after fighting the disease for many
years. Her grandmother also died from cancer.
In May 2013, 37-year-old Jolie announced in a
New York Times op-ed article titled "My Medical
Choice" that she underwent a double
mastectomy in an effort to prevent breast cancer
in the future. The actress said she decided to
undergo the surgery after learning that she
carries a gene known as BRCA1, which increases
the risk of both breast and ovarian cancer.
"My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent
risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of
ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in
the case of each woman," Jolie stated. "Once I
knew that this was my reality, I decided to be
proactive and to minimize the risk as much I
could." By late April 2013, Jolie added, she had
completed several months of medical
procedures, including a double mastectomy and
reconstruction surgery, at the Pink Lotus Breast
Center in California.
Pitt and Jolie became engaged in 2012. Slipping
under the paparazzi radar, they quietly tied the
knot in a private ceremony surrounded by their
family and friends on August 23, 2014, in France.
7

On March 24, 2015, Jolie wrote in another article
in the New York Times that she had her ovaries
and fallopian tubes removed the previous week
to further reduce her risk for cancer. “I did not
do this solely because I carry the BRCA1 gene
mutation, and I want other women to hear this,”
Jolie wrote. “A positive BRCA test does not mean
a leap to surgery. I have spoken to many doctors,
surgeons and naturopaths. There are other
options. Some women take birth control pills or
rely on alternative medicines combined with
frequent checks. There is more than one way to
deal with any health issue. The most important
thing is to learn about the options and choose
what is right for you personally.”
The actress said she went public with her
decision to help "other women at risk to know
about the options." In a September 2017
interview with Vanity Fair, Jolie revealed that she
had developed Bell’s palsy, damage to the facial
nerve which caused one side of her face to droop.
She said acupuncture helped her fully recover
from the facial paralysis.
Split from Brad Pitt
In September 2016, Jolie filed for divorce from
Pitt and requested sole physical custody of their
six children, sparking another tabloid frenzy.
Their contentious custody battle played out
publicly with allegations that Pitt, after drinking
on their private plane, had gotten “verbally
abusive“ and “physical“ with Maddox. The Los
Angeles Department of Children and Family
Services and the FBI launched an investigation
but found no signs of abuse; the couple followed
with a joint statement that they were working
together to resolve their divorce.
In May 2017, Pitt gave his first interview to GQ
Style after their split in which he said he had
stopped drinking and was in therapy. Jolie
opened up about their separation in a
September 2017 cover story in Vanity Fair. In the
interview, she said by the summer of 2016,
“things became difficult” in their marriage, but
she defended their life together. “[Our lifestyle]
was not in any way a negative,” she told the
magazine. “That was not the problem. That is
and will remain one of the wonderful
opportunities we are able to give our children. ...
They’re six very strong-minded, thoughtful,
worldly individuals. I’m very proud of them.”
She also said the family was moving forward
together, and that she and Pitt were both
dedicated to the best interests of the children:
“We care for each other and care about our
family, and we are both working towards the
same goal.”
In March 2018, Entertainment Tonight reported
that the actress and humanitarian was quietly
dating a “handsome, older-looking man who is a
real estate agent,“ though the relationship was
not believed to be serious by that point.
A few months later, it was revealed that Jolie was
in danger of losing primary custody of her six
children after preventing them from seeing Pitt
during their ongoing divorce. According to court
documents, the judge in their case declared the
kids' lack of a healthy relationship with their
father "harmful," and threatened to award Pitt
primary custody if things didn't change. The
judge suggested some steps the estranged
couple could take, including providing Pitt with
the cell phone number of each child, and
outlined a summer visitation schedule to follow
with Jolie in London to film Maleficent 2.
In August, Jolie's legal team filed court
documents that claimed her estranged husband
had "paid no meaningful child support since
separation," an accusation that Pitt's side
disputed.