Angelina Jolie on Why She Hasn’t Dated Anyone Since Brad Pitt Divorce

A decade of putting her six kids first left little room for romance, Angelina Jolie says — but that's starting to shift. Now, the actress is letting herself imagine what life might look like beyond motherhood.

Angelina Jolie has opened up about her love life, revealing that she hasn't actively pursued romance since she and ex-husband Brad Pitt filed for divorce in 2016. Their separation, followed by a years-long legal battle, was only finalized in December 2025.

"To be candid, I haven't dated since I divorced a decade ago," Jolie told Yahoo! Entertainment in an interview published June 22. "So I kind of get in my head that that aspect of me is not centered in my life if I'm focusing on my children, my family."

The 51-year-old, who shares six children — Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 17 — with Pitt, was reflecting on the idea of pursuing a relationship during hardship while discussing her latest film, "Couture."

The 2025 drama follows Jolie as Maxine Walker, a filmmaker who rediscovers herself after being diagnosed with breast cancer. While grappling with the illness, she finds love with a colleague, a cinematographer named Anton.

"It took me a second to kind of say, 'Well, she can also love her daughter and be dedicated to her daughter and also need this as a woman and receive this as a woman,'" she said, later adding, "Maybe I've come around to being a little bit more the person I used to be."

"So often we see, when there's a project that's dealing with a woman's cancer, it's not often where her sexuality post-diagnosis is celebrated," Jolie said. When she first read the script, she noted that she was struck by how intentionally director Alice Winocour approached that part of Maxine's story.

She added that the film pushes back against the idea that illness should consume someone's entire identity. "This was a part of continuing to live all aspects, to live to your last breath, right?" she explained. "And not to start living only as a patient."

That theme carries particular weight in one of the film's most intimate scenes between Maxine and Anton. Jolie has acknowledged that exploring that side of her character forced her to confront some of her own internal biases.

Jolie has navigated her own brief experience with the disease. In 2013, she discovered she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation, which signals a genetic risk of cancer, and underwent a preventative double mastectomy that same year.

Those experiences shaped how she approached portraying Maxine. And while her children have remained her priority throughout the past decade, Jolie noted they've also played a role in her decision to reconsider dating going forward.

"I'm discovering something now that my daughters are older. They're talking to me as young women, and I'm seeing what I want for them," the actress explained. "I'm seeing what I don't want them to lose and what I want them to hold on to. And it's kind of reminding me what I may have lost."

"I think in some way they're bringing me back to my old self. My desire for them to have all of the strength and openness and softness and faith and ferocity is reminding me," Jolie continued. "I think they kind of want me now to not just be 'Mom.' There's a different room for me to be that woman again, that's not just a mom."