Actress Angelina Jolie discussed how she believes feelings of stress during her divorce from Brad Pitt led to her developing the medical condition known as Bell’s palsy.
“My blood sugar goes up and down. I suddenly had Bell’s palsy six months before my divorce,” the 48-year-old mom of six told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Tuesday. Jolie had previously discussed recovering from the condition during a Vanity Fair interview in 2017 but didn’t reveal what she believed to be the catalyst.
According to the Mayo Clinic, Bell’s palsy is “a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face. 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 Bell’s palsy is unknown.
Jolie also told the outlet she doesn’t “really have a social life” in Los Angeles after everything she’s been through, including the media scrutiny. “I wouldn’t be an actress today,” the actress said. “When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much.”
Jolie and Pitt announced their divorce in 2016. They had been together for 12 years and married for two at that point and shared both biological and adopted children together. Their divorce kicked off a bitter battle over both shared property and custody of their six kids: Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, 15.
The “Eternals” star is notoriously private about her personal life, saying only that she and her kids, “had to heal” following the divorce. “There are things we needed to heal from,” Jolie repeated while speaking with WSJ.
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Jolie also described her kids as her friends. “They are the closest people to me and my life, and they’re my close friends,” the actress said. “We’re seven very different people, which is our strength.”
Jolie told the outlet that despite being born in Los Angeles, she’s anxious to leave. The “Maleficent” star said she’d rather be spending time in Cambodia, which is 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,” Jolie 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.”