Angelina Jolie says she has not dated since her 2016 split from Brad Pitt, and her new film Couture pushed her to talk about love, motherhood and wanting more for herself.
The Oscar winner spoke with Yahoo Entertainment while promoting Couture, in which she plays an American filmmaker in Paris who receives a breast cancer diagnosis.
People reported that Jolie said the role made her look at the parts of her life she had pushed aside while raising her children.
“I haven’t dated or been with anyone since I divorced a decade ago, right?” Jolie told Yahoo, according to People. “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 and my family.”
Angelina Jolie Said She Hasn’t Dated Since the Split
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Jolie and Pitt separated in 2016 after two years of marriage and a longer relationship. Entertainment Weekly reported that the former couple finalized their divorce in December 2024 after an eight-year legal battle.
The exes share six children: Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne. Jolie told Yahoo that focusing on her children and family had moved dating away from the center of her life, but playing Maxine in Couture made her reconsider whether motherhood and romantic love had to be separate.
Couture Made Her Talk About Love and Illness
In Couture, Jolie plays Maxine Walker, an American filmmaker working during Paris Fashion Week who learns she has breast cancer. Reuters reported that the Alice Winocour film connects to Jolie’s own family history: her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of breast cancer at 56, and Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 after learning she carried the same genetic mutation.
The film also gives Maxine a romantic storyline with Anton, played by Louis Garrel. Jolie told Yahoo that it took her time to accept that Maxine could be devoted to her daughter while also needing love as a woman.
“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,” Jolie said, according to People. She added that the realization could be healing for the character, then said of herself, “Life has broken me a little” and “I have to live again. Be free again.”
Her Daughters Have Been Part of That Conversation
Jolie said her daughters Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne have helped bring those questions closer to the surface. People reported that Jolie said they now speak to her as young women, and that watching them has reminded her of things she does not want them to lose.
“I see what I want for them,” Jolie told Yahoo. “I see what I don’t want them to lose and what I want them to hold on to. And in a way, this is reminding me of what I might have lost myself.”
Jolie said her daughters are “bringing me back to my old self,” according to People. She added that they seem to want her to exist as more than only their mother: “There’s a different room for me to be that woman again, that’s not just a mom.”
Jolie and Pitt Still Have the Miraval Case Open
Although Jolie and Pitt finalized their divorce in 2024, they remain in a legal dispute over Château Miraval, the French winery they once owned together.
People reported that Pitt recently scored a procedural win in the case when a judge ordered the buyers of Jolie’s former stake to sit for depositions. Jolie’s lawyer told the outlet the rulings did not change the merits of the case and said Jolie was looking forward to defeating the claims at trial next year.