Angelina Jolie spoke to BBC World News while in Cambodia to promote her latest directorial effort, the documentary “First They Killed My Father.”
Of course, conversation veered to her recent split from husband, Brad Pitt.
Pressed by journalist Yalda Hakim about filing for divorce from her “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” co-star, Jolie said: “Many, many people find themselves in this situation. My whole, my family… we’ve all being through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children… and my focus is finding this way through. We are and forever will be a family. I am coping with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer.”
The mother of six and former United Nations Goodwill Ambassador declined to give specifics on a reported incident on an airplane flight involving her oldest son, Maddox, and Pitt.
“I don’t want to say very much about that, except to say it was a very difficult time and… and we are a family and we will always be a family, and we will get through this time and hopefully be a stronger family for it,” she said.
People magazine reported that the incident took place on September 14 on the couple’s private plane. Jolie separated from her partner of 12 years the next day. Pitt has since been cleared by the FBI of any wrongdoing in the incident.
“In five years’ time I would like to be traveling around the world visiting my children, hoping that they’re just happy and doing really interesting things, and I imagine in many different parts of the world, and I’ll be supporting them,” she said.
“Everything I do I hope is that I represent something, and I represent the right things to my children, and give them the right sense of what they’re capable of, and the world as it should be seen,” Jolie added. “Not through the prism of Hollywood or through a certain kind of life, but really take them into the world, where they have a really good sense and become rounded people.”
“First They Killed My Father,” Jolie world premiered in Cambodia over the weekend. The Netflix-made movie tells the real-life story of the Khmer Rouge genocide told through the eyes of a child. It is her first directorial effort following her 2015 feature “By the Sea,” in which she starred alongside Pitt.
Jolie first visited Cambodia in 2001 for “Lara Croft: Tom Raider,” and later adopted Maddox from the country. Jolie attended the screening accompanied by her six children.