Brad Pitt breaks silence on divorce from Angelina Jolie after settlement

Brad Pitt is breaking his silence on his divorce from his ex-wife Angelina Jolie less than a year after the former couple officially finalized it.

The F1 actor was recently asked if he felt a sense of relief following last December’s announcement that they had reached a settlement more than eight years after the Maria actress filed to end their two-year marriage.

“No, I don’t think it was that major of a thing,” Pitt said in a new GQ interview. “Just something coming to fruition. Legally.”

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Pitt, 61, and Jolie, 49, began dating after meeting on the set of their 2005 action-comedy film, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The couple would go on to welcome six children together — Maddox, Pax, Shiloh, Zahara, and twins Knox and Vivienne — before tying the knot nearly a decade later in 2014. 

However, two years later, Jolie filed to dissolve their marriage following an alleged 2016 incident on a private jet in which she claims that Pitt was physically abusive toward her and their children.

The FBI later announced in a 2022 report, which was reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, that it had dropped its investigation into the incident and no charges would be filed against Pitt. A child services investigation did not determine abuse and it was also closed in 2016, the Associated Press reported.

While a judge declared Pitt and Jolie legally single in 2019, negotiations over the division of their shared assets and custody of their children resulted in a yearslong legal battle before they reached a settlement in 2024.

“More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt,” Jolie’s lawyer, James Simon, told EW in a statement following the finalization. “She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family. This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago. Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.”

A source close to the matter told EW that Jolie “doesn’t speak ill of [Pitt] publicly or privately” and that “she’s been trying hard to be light after a dark time.” 

They continued, “The kids have grown up seeing that some people have so much power and privilege that their voices don’t matter. Their pain doesn’t count. They have wanted her to speak up for herself, to defend herself over these years, but she reminds them to focus on changing laws over telling public stories.”

During his conversation with GQ, Pitt explained that he has become accustomed to seeing his personal life play out in the public sphere. “It’s been in the news for 30 years, bro,” he said. “Or some version of my personal life, let’s put it that way.”

He also shot down the suggestion that his upcoming racing film, F1, was a place of solace away from the constant media attention surrounding him. 

“Um, I don’t see it that way,” Pitt said. “It’s been an annoyance I’ve had to always deal with in different degrees, large and small, as I do the things I really want to do. So, it’s always been this kind of nagging time suck or waste of time, if you let it be that, I don’t know. I don’t know. Mostly I feel pretty… My life is fairly contained. It feels pretty warm and secure with my friends, with my loves, with my fam, with my knowledge of who I am, that, you know, it’s like this fly buzzing around a little bit.”