'Splitting from Angelina was like death': Brad Pitt confesses to drinking too much in run up to 'self-inflicted' end of his marriage in first raw interview
Brad Pitt has compared his split from
Angelina Jolie to 'a death',
admitting that he is an emotional 'retard' whose heavy drinking helped ruined his marriage.
Jolie stunned the world in September, 2016 when she filed for divorce following an alleged altercation on a private jet between the actor and their 15-year-old son, Maddox.
Now in his first interview since the shock separation, he reveals he is tee-total, in therapy
and blames himself for the marriage crumbling, conceding: 'I hit the lottery and I still would waste my time on those hollow pursuits.
He told
GQ Style magazine: '(The split was) self-inflicted... If you love someone, set them free. Now I know what it means, by feeling it.
'It means to love without ownership. It means expecting nothing in return. It doesn't mean f*** all to me until, you know. Until you live it.
When asked if the last few months had felt like he was grieving a death, he simply replied: 'Yeah.'
The Fight Club star has quit alcohol since the incident, admitting it had become a 'problem' during his life with Angelina.
I mean, we have a winery. I enjoy wine very, very much, but I just ran it to the ground. I had to step away for a minute,' he continued. 'And truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good,' before conceding that he didn't 'want to live that way anymore'.
'But me, personally, I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something.
'I mean I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know - things I wasn’t dealing with. I was boozing too much. It’s just become a problem.'
He has now replaced boozing with therapy, adding: 'You know, I just started therapy. I love it. I love it. I went through two therapists to get the right one.'
Alongside his bombshell revelation that his drinking damaged his relationship, the actor says that he spent too much time away from his children working on films.
'I say that as someone who's let the work take me away. Kids are so delicate,' he explains. 'They absorb everything. They need to have their hand held and things explained. They need to be listened to. When I get in that busy work mode, I'm not hearing. I want to be better at that.'
And it seems the therapy is working - Pitt refuses to take the magnifying glass away from himself, saying he is 'emotionally retarded' and hasn't 'been great' at proving his feelings to his children, explaining: 'It's hit me smack in the face with our divorce: I gotta be more. I gotta be more for them. I have to show them.'
Explaining his life in the weeks after Angelina filed for divorce, Brad says he was too devastated to return to his home in Beverly Hills and needed to get away.
He slept on a friend's floor for six weeks as he tried to cope with the loss of his relationship and family homelife.
