‘HAD TO HEAL’

Angelina Jolie Blames Her Bell’s Palsy on Marriage With Brad Pitt Falling Apart

The Oscar winner also said in a new interview that if she were starting out today, she “wouldn’t be an actress,” suggesting that intense public scrutiny has taken its toll.

Angelina Jolie and her children “had to heal” from the stress caused by the implosion of her marriage to Brad Pitt and the intense public scrutiny that followed, she told WSJ Magazine in a rare interview. “My body reacts very strongly to stress,” she says. “My blood sugar goes up and down. I suddenly had Bell’s palsy six months before my divorce.” Jolie filed for divorce in Sept. 2016; nearly a year later, she revealed for the first time that she’d fully recovered from Bell’s palsy, a condition that causes partial facial paralysis. “Sometimes women in families put themselves last... until it manifests itself in their own health,” she told Vanity Fair. Years later, Jolie explained to WSJ, she still doesn’t “really have a social life” living in Los Angeles, with the spotlight on her still harsh. “I wouldn’t be an actress today,” the 48-year-old said. “When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much.”