Brad Pitt Doesn’t Think His Divorce From Angelina Jolie Was ‘That Major of a Thing’

On Wednesday, GQ revealed its latest cover star: none other than Brad Pitt. In the accompanying story, the Oscar-winning actor chatted about life lately (“It feels pretty warm and secure with my friends, with my loves, with my fam, with my knowledge of who I am, that, you know, it’s like this fly buzzing around a little bit”), his current interests (“I’m a bit of an architectural snob and I’m a bit of a nature lover”), and his forthcoming film, F1 (“Man, I’ve been doing this for a while and was wondering: Do I have more stories to tell? Do I have anything to add to this? Is there still any excitement I can find from this? [This film] just reinvigorated the whole thing again for me.”)

Sounds like a pretty benign conversation, no? Hell, I’d call it boring. That was until Pitt’s divorce from Angelina Jolie came up.

When asked if Pitt felt “relief” now that he is “on the other side of the divorce finally being finalized,” he replied: “No, I don’t think it was that major of a thing. Just something coming to fruition. Legally.”

An eight-year-long divorce that included allegations that Pitt was physically abusive and addicted to alcohol, and culminated in none of his children speaking to him wasn’t “that major of a thing”? I don’t follow.

The former couple’s divorce was finalized in December 2024, but Jolie had filed for divorce in 2016, days after an inebriated Pitt allegedly became abusive to her and her eldest son, Maddox. Pitt denied the allegations and wasn’t charged by authorities. In April 2024, as part of their bitter back-and-forth over Jolie’s decision to sell her shares of the winery they owned together, Jolie revealed in a filing that the infamous 2016 incident wasn’t the first time Pitt got physical with her, but was the first time “he turned his physical abuse on the children as well.” Earlier this year, Jolie and Pitt’s twins, Vivienne and Shiloh, both made moves to drop Pitt from their last name. But hey, glad to learn Pitt thinks that’s all super chill!

“My personal life is always in the news,” Pitt told GQ about working amid public scrutiny. “It’s been in the news for 30 years, bro. Or some version of my personal life, let’s put it that way.”

“It’s been an annoyance I’ve had to always deal with in different degrees, large and small, as I do the things I really want to do,” he tacked on. “So, it’s always been this kind of nagging time suck or waste of time, if you let it be that. I don’t know. I don’t know.” Totally, bro. Must be gnarly trying to hang loose when life gets a little aggro–like when your ex-wife alleges you attacked her and one of her children on a private jet.