“It is the place we brought the twins home to, and where we were married over a plaque in my mother’s memory,” Jolie wrote in the email obtained by ET from court documents referencing her and Pitt’s youngest children, twins Knox and Vivienne. “A place that held the promise of what could be and where I thought I would grow old. Even now impossible to write this without crying. I will treasure my memories of what it was a decade ago.”
“But it is also the place that marks the beginning of the end of our family – and a business centered around alcohol,” Jolie noted, hinting at Pitt’s struggle with alcohol addiction. “I had hoped somehow it could become something that held us together, and we found light and peace. I see now how you have really wanted me out and will most likely be pleased to receive this email.”
Last year, Jolie told The Guardian that even as someone who fights for human rights, particularly for children, across the world, it could be difficult to navigate the same issues when they are personal. “Often you cannot recognize something personally, especially if your focus is on the greatest global injustices because everything else seems smaller,” she said. “It’s so hard. I’d like to have this discussion and it’s so important…I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions I had to make lightly. It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children.”