Brad Pitt Reflects on ‘Darker Days,’ Loss and Pain Following Angelina Jolie Divorce

Brad Pitt has spoken about making it through his “darker days” and enduring “losses and pain” after his bitter, drawn-out divorce from Angelina Jolie.

The 62-year-old actor reflected on how he handled some of the most difficult periods of his life while promoting his new film, Heart of the Beast.

In the survival thriller, Pitt plays James Belmont, a retired Special Forces officer who is stranded in the remote Alaskan wilderness alongside Odin, his retired combat dog, after their plane crashes.

The pair survive the impact but must battle freezing conditions and the harsh landscape as they fight to stay alive and wait for rescue.

Pitt worked with survival specialists while making the film and said the experience gave him a new perspective on the challenges he has faced in his own life.

He said: “When I think of the darker days, it was certainly my close relationships that I relied heavily on. Friends, dear close friends, a handful of close family, and I was very open about my struggle.”

According to The Sun, Pitt added: “Being able to be that free with people who love you and have your back, and that you love back, is everything. It’s everything.”

“The survivalists would tell us it’s all about little wins. You’re going to suffer losses, you’re going to suffer pain, but it’s just getting to the next little win.

“I thought that equated to life in that way. When we are struggling and facing challenge after challenge, it is about reaching the next little win rather than focusing on the bigger picture.”

Last month, friends claimed that Pitt’s marriage to Jolie sent his life “spiraling”.

An exclusive Daily Mail report quoted friends as describing the marriage as “the worst thing that ever happened to him” and said it caused his life to spiral.

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A source close to Pitt told the publication: “He never had a drink problem, he had an Angelina problem. He’s worked hard on himself and he’s now, finally, in a really good place.”

The full in-depth report is available here.

Pitt and Jolie, 51, split in September 2016 after two years of marriage. Their divorce was eventually finalised in 2024, following an eight-year legal battle.

The update comes after Jolie said in an interview with L’Officiel USA, published on September 9, that she was ready to leave the United States and “be a bit nomadic” now that her youngest children, twins Vivienne and Knox, had turned 18.

The actress, who put her Los Feliz mansion on the market for $29.85 million earlier this year, said she was experiencing “the end of a certain time” in her life.

Asked whether she planned to trade Los Angeles for New York, Jolie told the publication: “Out of the States more, I think.”

“I don’t really plan to have a base. I’d like to have a home base for my family, a place where some of the mom stuff and the family photos are. And then I’d like to be a bit nomadic for a while.”

Jolie no longer has to remain in Los Angeles under the terms of her custody arrangement with Pitt, which required her minor children to stay close to their father until they reached adulthood.

All six of her children with Pitt are now adults. Four of them — Maddox, 25, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and Vivienne — have taken legal steps to change their surnames from Pitt to Jolie.

Knox and Pax, 22, have not submitted formal petitions to change their legal names.

While Pitt has increasingly been seen in public with his girlfriend of nearly four years, Ines de Ramon, 33, the Maleficent star is focused on expanding her creative venture, Atelier Jolie, around the world.