Angelina Jolie has admitted she has not dated anyone since her split from Brad Pitt nearly a decade ago, revealing in a rare and candid interview that she is only now beginning to rediscover the woman she was before heartbreak and motherhood defined her life.
Jolie opens up about life after divorce
The Oscar-winning actress, 51, spoke while promoting her new film Couture, explaining that raising her six children became her entire focus after the end of her marriage. Jolie and Pitt share Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and 17-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. The former couple split in 2016 following an alleged incident aboard a private plane, and their divorce was finalised at the end of 2024 after years of legal disputes.
Reflecting on her personal life, Jolie told Yahoo! Entertainment: 'To be candid, I haven't dated since I divorced a decade ago. So I kind of get in my head that that aspect of me is not centered in my life if I'm focusing on my children, my family.'
New film challenges old mindset
Stepping into the role of Maxine in Couture challenged that way of thinking. Jolie explained that her character made her realise a woman does not have to choose between being devoted to her children and embracing love or companionship. 'It took me a second to kind of say, well, she can also love her daughter and be dedicated to her daughter and also need this as a woman and receive this as a woman,' she said.
Jolie also revealed that as her daughters have grown older, they have helped her reconnect with parts of herself she feels she lost along the way. 'Oh, completely. Completely and maybe I've come around to being a little bit more the person I used to be,' she said when asked whether the questions she asks herself have changed over the years.
Daughters help her rediscover herself
'I'm discovering something now that my daughters are older. They're talking to me as young women, and I'm seeing what I want for them. I'm seeing what I don't want them to lose and what I want them to hold on to. And it's kind of reminding me what I may have lost,' Jolie said. 'I think in some way they're bringing me back to my old self.'
'My desire for them to have all of the strength and openness and softness and faith and ferocity is reminding me. I think they kind of want me now to not just be "Mom." There's a different room for me to be that woman again, that's not just a mom,' she added.
Life has 'broken me a little bit'
The actress spoke about how deeply the breakdown of her marriage affected her. 'So yes, things are changing, but in a way I didn't expect. It doesn't feel like I'm 51 and starting to think of being older. I'm thinking I have to live again. Be free again. In a way that maybe life has broken me a little bit,' she said.
Now, with her children entering adulthood, Jolie suggested she is beginning a new chapter, one where being a mother remains central to her life but no longer defines all of who she is.
