Hollywood star Brad Pitt has opened up about his time attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings following his split with Angelina Jolie. The 61-year old actor, who stars in the new film F1: The Movie, reportedly began attending the men’s group meetings after his former partner and film star, Angelina Jolie, filed for divorce in September 2016.
Speaking on the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, he described attending the AA meetings as an “amazing experience”. Pitt said: “I was pretty much on my knees, and I was really open. I was trying anything and everyone. Anything anyone threw at me.
“It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting. I needed to wake the f*** up in some areas. And it just meant a lot to me. It was really moving. Some of these men were so moving.
“What an amazing thing this experience was for me. It was a men’s group was AA, it was when I first was getting sober. I just thought it was just incredible men sharing their experiences, their foibles, their missteps, their wants, their aches, and lot of humour with it. I thought it was a really special experience.”
The divorce led to a long-running legal battle between the two stars, with a settlement reached in December. Pitt shares six children with Jolie with one of them, a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, becoming the first to request a legal name change in May.
Prior to Jolie, he was married to Friends star Jennifer Aniston until their split in 2005. He added that he was a little shy when he first attended the meetings but that it later became something he looked “forward to”.
Pitt said: “When I’ve stepped in shit, I’m pretty good at taking responsibility for it, owning up to it. How can I write this and make sure it doesn’t happen again, or just be better. Step up.
“So I was really open to that, and I was really open to see what these guys were doing, who had their thing and been there for a while. Sure, I was a bit shy. I can generally be a bit shy in any kind of situation at first, but I just remember getting my arms around it pretty quickly, and it became a thing for me. It was really something I’d look forward to.”
The award-winning actor is known for films including Fight Club, 12 Years A Slave and Moneyball and has received six Oscar nominations, taking two home including actor in a supporting role for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood.
He appears in F1: The Movie which follows a racer as he tries to lead a struggling Formula 1 team. The film stars Pitt alongside Snowfall star Damson Idris and Kerry Condon, known for The Banshees Of Inisherin.
Pitt attended the European Premiere for F1: The Movie in London on Monday and posed for photographs with Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise.
Looking for more from MyLondon? Subscribe to our daily newsletters here for the latest and greatest updates from across London.
