Stress From Brad Pitt Divorce Led to Neurological Disorder, Angelina Jolie Says

Brad Pitt and his wife Angelina Jolie at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in London on June 13, 2014. Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

Actress Angelina Jolie recently attributed the medical condition she has, known as Bell’s palsy, to the stress she experienced during her divorce from fellow actor Brad Pitt.

In an interview published Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, the “Maleficent” star discussed her belief that the experience led to her developing the disorder.

Bell’s palsy is “a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face,“ according to the Mayo Clinic. ”In most cases, the weakness is temporary and significantly improves over weeks.” The weakness makes half of the face appear to droop. The exact cause of the disease is unknown.

Although Ms. Jolie, 48, had previously spoken about recovering from the condition in a 2017 Vanity Fair interview, she never mentioned what she believed to be the cause.

“My body reacts very strongly to stress,” she said. “My blood sugar goes up and down. I suddenly had Bell’s palsy six months before my divorce.”

Bitter Divorce

It was in 2016 that Ms. Jolie and Mr. Pitt announced they were divorcing after 12 years together with the couple married for the last two and sharing both biological and adopted children at that point.

Their divorce spawned a bitter fight over the property they shared as well as the custody of their six children. They include Maddox, now 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, 15.

Since she divorced Mr. Pitt seven years ago, Ms. Jolie has found herself even more of a tabloid target. She said the stress was so severe that in 2018 during the filming of “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” her voice had changed registers since she started played the role.

Jolie Wants Out of LA

During the interview, Ms. Jolie also revealed her ultimate desire to leave Los Angeles and spend more time at her home in Cambodia, where her adopted son Maddox is from and where she directed the 2017 film “First They Killed My Father.”

“It’s part of what happened after my divorce. I lost the ability to live and travel as freely. I will move when I can,” she said. “I grew up in quite a shallow place. Of all the places in the world, Hollywood is not a healthy place. So you seek authenticity.”

She also noted her current lack of a social life in LA after everything that’s transpired, including the media scrutiny.

“I wouldn’t be an actress today,” said Jolie. “When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much.”

After playing the fairytale villain in the tent-pole “Maleficent” in 2014, Ms. Jolie directed and co-starred opposite Mr. Pitt in 2015’s “By the Sea,” which didn’t fare well with critics or at the box office. Since then, her only leading roles have been in 2019’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” and 2021’s “Those Who Wish Me Dead.” She’s had supporting roles in Marvel’s “Eternals,” “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” “Come Away” and speaking parts in Disney’s “The One and Only Ivan” and the upcoming “Kung Fu Panda 4.” Ms. Jolie also just wrapped filming on Pablo Larrain’s “Maria,” where she plays famed opera star Maria Callas during her final days.

The Academy Award winner, who described her children as her friends, noted repeatedly she and her children need to heal following the divorce. During her divorce from Mr. Pitt, there were reports that the two had very different parenting styles.

Jolie Speaks Out on Israel–Hamas War

While Ms. Jolie said her current social life is lacking, her opinions as a humanitarian aren’t. Ms. Jolie has been a goodwill ambassador and special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Recently, her father, Jon Voight, publicly voiced his disappointment in his daughter and others like her who demanded an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group that broke out after Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.

“I’m very disappointed that my daughter, like so many, has no understanding of God’s honor, God’s truths. This is about destroying the history of God’s land, the Holy land, the land of the Jews,” said Mr. Voight in a post on the social media platform X. He titled the post “Truth and Lies.”

On Oct. 28 Ms. Jolie posted to her Instagram page, “What happened in Israel is an act of terror. But that cannot justify the innocent lives lost in bombing a civilian population in Gaza that has nowhere to go, no access to food or water, no possibility of evacuation, and not even the basic human rights to cross a border to seek refuge.”

She prefaced her remarks by expressing that like millions around the world, she was sick and angry at the terrorist attacks in Israel and was praying for the immediate and safe return of every hostage and for their families.