Angelina Jolie Says She ‘Lost The Ability’ to ‘Live Freely’ Amid Brad Pitt Divorce and Custody Battle

Angelina Jolie is ready to leave Hollywood but said she hasn’t been able to move away amid her divorce from Brad Pitt and their ongoing legal drama.

“It’s part of what happened after my divorce … I lost the ability to live and travel as freely,” Angelina, 48, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Tuesday, December 5. “I will move when I can.” The actress added that she plans to spend more time in Cambodia, where she has a home, once she’s able to relocate, calling Hollywood “shallow” and “not a happy place.”

Angelina filed for divorce from Brad, 59, in September 2016. Although the A-list stars were declared “legally single” in 2019, their divorce has yet to be finalized. In addition to legal battles over custody – Angie and Brad still have three minor children – the estranged couple is also at war over their Provençal Château Miraval property in France, which they purchased in 2008.

The ongoing drama has kept Angelina mostly out of the public eye in the seven years since her divorce filing. She has only had five movies come out since the split. “We had to heal,” she explained. “There are things we needed to heal from.”

However, that hasn’t kept the public from talking about Brangelina. The intense scrutiny is different from what Angie experienced when she first became an actress. “When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much,” she admitted.

She added, “Since I was young, people liked the part of me that’s pretty tough and maybe a bit wild – that’s the part that I think people enjoy. I’m not the one [who] you want to hear about my pain or sadness. You know, that’s not entertaining.”

While Brad has kept his relationship with his six children – Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 17, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 15 – private since his split from Angelina, she is often photographed out and about with the kids. “They are the closest people to me and my life, and they’re my close friends,” the Maleficent star explained. “We’ve seven very different people, which is our strength.”

Angelina did not address her kids’ relationship with their dad but the actor appears to have a strained relationship with at least some of his children. In November, it was revealed that Pax had seemingly called the actor a “world class a–hole” on Instagram in 2020, according to alleged screenshots obtained by Daily Mail. Zahara also seemingly dissed Brad when she dropped his last name from her moniker, introducing herself as “Zahara Marley Jolie” at a sorority event in November.

“Brad will never underestimate the power of Angelina’s devious nature,” a source told In Touch in November. “Brad suspects Pax would not have posted that [Instagram] without Angie’s knowledge and consent. It seems she’s trying to turn the kids against him – and has been successful in the case of the older kids.”