Brad Pitt wants you to know: That time he was married to Jennifer Aniston was definitely not great.
The 49-year-old, A-list actor has cast his seven-year marriage to the former “Friends” star, whom he divorced in 2005, in a negative light – telling Esquire magazine that he was wasting his life on drugs during that time.
“For a long time I thought I did too much damage – drug damage. I was a bit of a drifter. A guy who felt he grew up in something of a vacuum and wanted to see things, wanted to be inspired. I followed that other thing. I spent years f***ing off,” Pitt told the magazine. “But then I got burnt out and felt that I was wasting my opportunity. It was a conscious change… This was about a decade ago. It was an epiphany.”
And now, he said, his relationship with Jolie and their six children have put him on cloud nine.
'I always thought that if I wanted to do a family, I wanted to do it big. I wanted there to be chaos in the house ... there's constant chatter in our house, whether it's giggling or screaming or crying or banging,” he described.
'I love it. I love it. I love it. I hate it when they're gone. I hate it. Maybe it's nice to be in a hotel room for a day - 'Oh, nice, I can finally read a paper.' But then, by the next day, I miss that cacophony, all that life.”
He gushed: “I just haven’t known life to be any happier.”
And this isn’t the first time the “Moneyball” star has seemingly slammed his past nuptials. In 2011, Pitt told Parade magazine that before working with Jolie on the set of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” he “wasn’t living an interesting life.”
“I think that my marriage had something to do with it. Trying to pretend the marriage was something it wasn’t,” he continued, also referencing his 90’s pastime of “sitting on a couch, holding a joint, hiding out.”
The media hype surrounding his statements prompted Pitt to later insist that the comments were misunderstood and declare that his ex-wife “is an incredibly giving, loving and hilarious woman who remains my friend.”
And some argue the drugs, the broken marriages – it’s all typical Tinseltown.
“I don't think Brad Pitt is intentionally trying to diss ex-wife Jen Aniston... He is expressing that he went through a rough patch in his life as we all do. It just so happens his occurred while married to America's Sweetheart under a microscope,” said entertainment reporter, Valerie Greenberg. “The fact of the matter is Hollywood or no Hollywood drugs are prevalent in our society. I certainly am not shocked that he's dabbled in drugs because sometimes when you have it all, especially a successful movie career you get bored and want to experiment. We've seen this time and time again with movie stars.”
Some, however, felt his comments were merely another Aniston insult.
“The question here is what is Brad Pitt's intention? Is it self-indulgence, introspection, an attempt to help others or an attempt to blame Jennifer Aniston? Again while his honesty and revelation is helpful to the public, it can be really harmful and painful to Jennifer,” human behavior expert, Patrick Wanis PhD, observed.
Aniston is currently engaged to actor Justin Theroux.
Reps for Pitt and Aniston did not respond to a request for comment.