Angelina Jolie wondered whether her “light was dimmed” before settling her contentious divorce from Brad Pitt after an eight-year legal battle.
“You’re an artist, and you go through different things in life,” the actress told Times Radio while discussing her role as opera singer Maria Callas in an interview posted Monday.
“And you wonder if certain parts of you have shut down, or who you are, what you have inside of you, and if your light’s dimmed, and if you have less to contribute, or if you don’t know yourself…”
The “Maria” star continued, “And what a gift as an artist, to be pushed again at this time in my life, to do something that terrified me and I wasn’t sure I could do is the greatest gift.”
Jolie, 49, made her reflective comments one week after finalizing her bitter divorce from Pitt, 61, with a source close to the actress revealing that her kids encouraged her to stand up for herself.
“She’s been trying hard to be light after a dark time,” the insider told People earlier this week. “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.”
The source added, “They have wanted her to speak up for herself, to defend herself over these years…”
Jolie and Pitt share six children: Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and Knox and Vivienne, 16.
The “Maleficent” star filed for divorce in September 2016 — following their second wedding anniversary — after Pitt allegedly physically abused her and two of their children on an airplane.
In court documents submitted by Jolie and obtained by Page Six, she accused the actor of choking one of their kids and smacking another, as well as grabbing her by the head and shaking her.
The exes battled in court over a custody agreement for years, with Pitt being granted joint custody in 2021.
They have also been battling over their pricey French winery, Château Miraval.
Last week, an insider told Page Six that Pitt is “thankful to start the new year with a clean slate and a fresh start” now that the divorce has been settled.
We also learned that his girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, “influenced” his decision to move on.
“Ines wants to have a life together — with possibly children in the future — without the albatross that was the eight-year War of the Roses,” our source said.
“She has made [it known that] her opinion is that life would be much more enjoyable with this settled.”
Pitt and de Ramon have been together since 2022.
