Actor says ‘we are and forever will be a family’ in emotional BBC interview before screening of new Cambodia film

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Angelina Jolie has spoken out for the first time since she filed for divorce from Brad Pitt last year, announcing it had been a difficult time but adding “we are and forever will be a family”.

“It was a very difficult time,” Jolie said, appearing visibly upset. “Many people find themselves in this situation … My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.”

She added: “We are and forever will be a family and so that is how I am coping. I am coping with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer.”

Jolie and Pitt got together in 2004 and married in August 2014. Jolie got sole custody of their six children after filing for divorce at the end of last year, citing irreconcilable differences.

The actor was speaking to the BBC in Cambodia before a screening of First They Killed My Father, a real-life story of the Khmer Rouge genocide told through the eyes of a child and directed by Jolie.

She first visited Cambodia in 2001 for the Hollywood hit Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and later adopted her oldest son, Maddox, from the country.



Jolie and her six children attended the world premiere for the Netflix-made movie on Saturday, inside the Angkor Wat temple complex near Siem Reap.

The film is based on a book of the same name by Loung Ung, who was forced to leave her home aged five by the Khmer Rouge, the communist regime led by Pol Pot that ran the country for four years in the late 1970s.

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Jolie said she hoped the movie might help Cambodians speak more openly about the genocide, in which 2 million people died, many from starvation.



“I felt that this war that happened 40 years ago, and what happened to these people, was not properly understood,” said Jolie. “Not just for the world but for the people of [Cambodia].”

Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni was also present at the premiere. He had previously granted the actor Cambodian citizenship for her environmental work in the country.

Jolie has focused on using her fame to draw attention to crises around the world, most notably as the UN refugee agency special envoy, working to highlight the needs of displaced Syrians.