Angelina Jolie And 12 Other Celebrities Open Up About Divorce

1. Angelina Jolie

Married to Brad Pitt from 2014–2017

“We care for each other and care about our family, and we are both working towards the same goal… I was very worried about my mother, growing up — a lot. I do not want my children to be worried about me. I think it’s very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything’s going to be all right even when you’re not sure it is.”

2. Jennifer Garner

Married to Ben Affleck from 2005–2017

“I turned on CNN one day and there we were. I just won’t do it anymore. I took a silent oath with myself last summer to really stay offline. I am totally clueless about all of it. . . .Ben says, ‘Oh, you just don’t care,’ and I say, ‘No, it’s the opposite.’ It hurts me so much, and I care so much . . . I cannot be driven by the optics of this. I cannot let anger or hurt be my engine. I need to move with the big picture always on my mind, and the kids first and foremost.”

—Vanity Fair, March 2016

3. Reese Witherspoon

Married to Ryan Phillippe from 1999–2007

“[Going] was very humiliating and very isolating. By the way, if it’s not painful, maybe it wasn’t the right decision to marry to begin with. Those are the appropriate emotions. When people get in your face and say, ‘This will pass,’ you think, are they crazy? I’m never gonna feel any better than I feel right this minute and nothing’s ever gonna make sense again. And I still have moments where I’m like, nothing’s ever gonna make sense again.”

—Elle, April 2009

4. Jennifer Aniston

Married to Brad Pitt from 2000–2005

“There’s no question it takes getting used to; I’m a partnership person, and if something happens your instinct is to share it—but you’re no longer part of a couple. I definitely miss that. It’s sort of like Bambi—like you’re trying to learn how to walk. You’re a little awkward; you stumble a little bit. The things you would do with your partner, you don’t do. It’s uncharted territory, but I think it’s good for me to be a solo person right now. You’re forced to re-discover yourself and take it to another level. If you can find a way to see the glass half full, these are the moments when you learn the most. I’ve had to re-introduce myself to myself in a way that’s different.”

—Vanity Fair, September 2005

5. Amy Poehler

Married to Will Arnett from 2003–2016

“When you are a person going through a divorce you feel incredibly alone, yet you are constantly reminded by society of how frequently divorce happens and how common it has become. You aren’t allowed to feel special, but no one knows the specific ways you are in pain.”

—Yes Please, October 2014

6. Katy Perry

Married to Russell Brand from 2010–2012

“[Divorce] was emotionally traumatic for me. It was the death of a dream. I was in fairytale land, and the reality of it wasn’t so. But I don’t really like talking about it anymore, because it feels like a thousand lifetimes ago, and also it makes me look desperate, like I need it for attention.”

—Rolling Stone, August 2014

7. Halle Berry

Married to David Justice (1993–1997), Eric Benet (2001–2005), Olivier Martinez (2013–2016)

“I have learned to deal with three failed marriages, which has not been easy, especially when there’s children involved… [As] women, we go into marriage thinking it’s going to last forever and that this is our prince on a shiny horse. That’s what fairy tales taught me as a kid…. and I’m kind of anti–fairy tales today.”

—At a Q & A at the 2017 City Summit and Gala, February 2017

8. Drew Barrymore

Married to Will Kopelman from 2012–2016

“I put in my [public] statement about divorce the word ‘failure’ because it’s so honest…. You break up with somebody and you’re like, ‘Yeah, that didn’t work,’…[but] when you get divorced you’re like, ‘I’m the biggest failure. This is the biggest failure.’ It’s so shameful and hard to actually go through that, even privately…. It’s a tough time. It’s a hard thing to go through. It’s like you’re being put on a cheese grater and every second, going, ‘Ah! This wasn’t the plan!’”

—On Chelsea Handler’s talk show Chelsea, May 2016

9. Robin Wright

Married to Sean Penn from 1996–2010

“Divorce in and of itself, and with children, is devastating. Worse than that. One of the reasons why we got back together and broke up so much was trying to keep the family together. If you’ve got kids, it’s a family, and you try again, and you try again. We did that for a long time.”

—The Telegraph, February 2014

10. Gwyneth Paltrow

Married to Chris Martin from 2003–2016

“Of course, there are times when I think it would have been better if we had stayed married, which is always what your children want. But we have been able to solidify this friendship, so that we’re really close. We’ve made a lot of mistakes, and we’ve had good days and bad days, but I have to say, I’m proud of us for working through so much stuff together, and not blaming and shaming.”

—Bazaar, January 2015

11. Brad Pitt

Married to Angelina Jolie from 2014–2017

“We’re both doing our best. I heard one lawyer say, ‘No one wins in court—it’s just a matter of who gets hurt worse.’ And it seems to be true, you spend a year just focused on building a case to prove your point and why you’re right and why they’re wrong, and it’s just an investment in vitriolic hatred.”

—GQ Style, Summer issue 2017

12. Jesse Williams

Married to Aryn Drake-Lee from 2012–2017

“I was in a relationship 13 years—13 real years, not 5 years, not 7 years, 13 years and all of a sudden mother f****** are writing think pieces that I somehow threw a 13-year relationship—like the most painful experience I’ve had in my life, like with a person I’ve loved with all my heart—that I threw a person and my family in the trash because a girl I work with is cute.”

—in a video for Jay-Z’s new album 4:44, July 2017

13. Nicole Kidman

Married to Tom Cruise from 1990–2001

“I can wear heels now.”

—On The Late Show With David Letterman, December 2010

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