Angelina Jolie says she doesn’t have a lot of friends outside of her family.
In an interview with WSJ Magazine, the 48-year-old says she keeps a tight circle of friends that include her six children she shares with ex-husband Brad Pitt: Maddox, 22; Pax, 20; Zahara,18; Shiloh, 17; and twins Knox and Vivienne, 15.
The actress, who confided that she doesn’t "really have" a social life, described her relationship with her children, saying, “They are the closest people to me and my life, and they’re my close friends. We’re seven very different people, which is our strength.”
Besides her family, Jolie says the majority of her small circle of friends are refugees.
“I realized my closest friends are refugees. Maybe four out of six of the women that I am close to are from war and conflict," she said.
Speaking about her humanitarian work with the United Nations in countries like Pakistan, Cambodia, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone, she said, “There’s a reason people who have been through hardship are also much more honest and much more connected, and I am more relaxed with them. ... Why do I like spending time with people who’ve survived and are refugees? They’ve confronted so much in life that it brings forward not just strength, but humanity.”
Jolie and Pitt split in 2016 after a 12-year relationship, with their divorce being finalized in 2019. The actress filed a countersuit against Pitt during litigation related to a winery they once owned together. In the suit, Jolie accused Pitt of physically and verbally abusing her and their children during a flight in 2016.
"We had a lot of healing to do. We’re still finding our footing,” Jolie told Vogue in an interview published in September. "I was 26 when I became a mother,” said Jolie. "My entire life changed. Having children saved me—and taught me to be in this world differently. I think, recently, I would’ve gone under in a much darker way had I not wanted to live for them. They’re better than me, because you want your children to be. Of course I’m the mother, and hopefully that safe place for them and that stability. But I’m also the one that they laugh at—and I see them taking over so many different aspects of our family."
Jolie’s last film credits include Marvel’s Eternals, and Those Who Wish Me Dead, both released in 2021. Among her first roles since her brief hiatus are opera singer Maria Callas in Maria and the title role for a third Maleficent film.
