Angelina Jolie says she “suddenly” developed Bell’s Palsy leading up to divorce

Angelina Jolie has opened up about her past health complications with Bell’s Palsy, saying she first developed the condition in the lead-up to her divorce from Brad Pitt.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal in a new interview, Jolie spoke candidly about how the break up between the two actors negatively impacted her well-being, saying: “My body reacts very strongly to stress. My blood sugar goes up and down. I suddenly had Bell’s palsy six months before my divorce.”

While Jolie didn’t go deeper into the topic of her Bell’s Palsy diagnosis, she said she has been feeling “bit down these days,” adding: “I don’t feel like I’ve been myself for a decade, in a way. Which I don’t want to get into.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Jolie spoke of her desire to move away from Los Angeles to spend more time at her home in Cambodia: “It’s part of what happened after my divorce. I lost the ability to live and travel as freely. I will move when I can. I grew up in quite a shallow place. Of all the places in the world, Hollywood is not a healthy place. So you seek authenticity.”

On the topic of leaving Los Angeles and the scrutiny that comes with being in Hollywood, the actress said: “I wouldn’t be an actress today. When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much.”

Jolie’s interview comes after her son Pax called Brad Pitt a “fucking awful human being” and a “world class asshole” in an unearthed Father’s Day post on Instagram in 2020.

Pax wrote in the private post: “You have no consideration or empathy toward your four youngest children who tremble in fear when in your presence.”

He added: “You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell. You may tell yourself and the world whatever you want, but the truth will come to light someday. So, Happy Father’s Day, you fucking awful human being!!!”

Pax was adopted by Angelina Jolie in 2007 from a Vietnamese orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, before he was adopted by Pitt a year later.

The couple have five other children: Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh, Vivienne and Knox. Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in 2016 following two years of marriage, with the pair locked in a custody battle over their six children in the years since.

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