Brad Pitt Opens Up About Grief, Family Struggles and a Dark Period in His Life

Brad Pitt is still coming to terms with the loss of his mother, Jane, nearly a year after her death. In a candid interview with Esquire, the actor spoke about grief, his father’s struggle with losing his wife and a deeply painful period in his own life.

Jane Pitt died on Aug. 5, just a week before her 85th birthday and six days before what would have been her 63rd wedding anniversary to Pitt’s father, William.

Pitt said the loss has been particularly difficult for his father. The actor, who remains close to him, said he was planning to return to Missouri to spend time together.

During those visits, father and son often sit outside on the porch in the evening, listening to cicadas and remembering Jane, who worked as an educator and counselor.

“We’re country people,” Pitt told Esquire. “We don’t go in depth, you know what I mean? Every now and then it’ll just be one line that cuts to the core, and then we kind of skip on.”

Pitt also acknowledged that the loss of his mother has come alongside other painful family issues, including his long-running estrangement from his six children with Angelina Jolie.

The actor said the combination of grief and family difficulties has left him more emotional than he would like. He recently told a friend that he wished he could become more even-tempered.

Her response changed the way he viewed his emotions.

She suggested that Pitt could pursue a more detached life, but also told him that being human means experiencing the full range of emotions. Her words helped him accept that feeling intense happiness and deep sadness is not necessarily something that needs to be fixed.

“That freed me,” Pitt recalled. “I heard that and I went, I’m going to stop feeling like there’s something wrong with that.”

Pitt described himself as “a congenital optimist,” but he also revealed that there was one period in his life when he experienced suicidal thoughts.

He said the crisis was connected to “family stuff” and explained that, although he never intended to act on the thoughts, the emotional pain became so overwhelming that death briefly felt like an escape.

“The pain was so oppressive,” Pitt said. “I could feel the cold steel of the bullet in my head, and it felt like relief.”

He said that experience helped him understand that suicidal thinking can come from a desire to escape unbearable pain rather than a desire for death itself.

After a pause, Pitt added, “This s--- ain’t easy. And you’re talking to a guy who won the lottery.”

His comments come amid continued changes within his family. Pitt’s youngest daughter, Vivienne, filed a petition on her 18th birthday to remove her father’s surname and use the name Vivienne Marcheline Jolie.

She is at least the fourth of Pitt and Jolie’s children to move away from the Pitt name, following Zahara, Shiloh and their eldest son, Maddox.

Despite the years of tension and estrangement, all six children were mentioned in Jane Pitt’s obituary. The obituary also highlighted her charitable work in Ethiopia, where three of her grandchildren were born, including Zahara, whom Jolie adopted in 2005 before she and Pitt married.

For Pitt, the past year has brought grief, family pain and difficult reflection. But his comments also suggest that he is trying to accept those emotions rather than hide from them.