Billy Bob Thornton got candid about why his marriage to Angelina Jolie came to an end after only three years.
The 70-year-old Landman actor – who has since tied the knot with Connie Angland – opened up about the topic during an interview with Rolling Stone published on Tuesday.
Thornton and Jolie said ‘I do’ back in 2000 in Las Vegas despite their 20-year age gap. However, their divorce was finalized three years later.
‘That was the one that ended up being a really civilized breakup,’ he expressed to the outlet. ‘We simply split up because our lifestyles were so different.’
The star added that both he and the Maleficent actress ‘had a great time together’ before revealing that it had also been ‘one of the greatest times of my life.’
In regards to their relationship two decades after calling it quits, Thornton said, ‘She and I are still very, very close friends.’
Both he and Jolie first crossed paths in 1999 on set of Pushing Tin and the pair eloped in Las Vegas the following year.
In 2002, the then-couple announced their adoption of son Maddox – whom she requested full custody of after their split.
Back in 2016 while talking to GQ, the Bad Santa actor further reflected on their separation and said that he ‘never felt good enough for’ Jolie.
‘I’m real uncomfortable around rich and important people,’ Thornton expressed, adding that he preferred to stay home rather than attending red carpet events.
And during a past interview with ABC News’ Nightline, he stated that he ‘blew it’ when it came to his marriage to Jolie.
‘I blew it because I didn’t think I was good enough for her. She has one way she wanted to live her life and I had another way to live mine and I was just too insecure.’
He continued, ‘I did feel like the Phantom of the Opera hiding in the catacombs. People have actually said that I didn’t deserve to be with her.’
Thornton also told Us Weekly back in 2019: ‘We’re good friends. We’ve been friends for years and years and years.’
The actor added, ‘We keep up with each other. She’s not in town a lot, so we don’t see each other much, but we talk.’
At the height of their past romance, the scrutiny was relentless – something Thornton still remembers as ‘very weird.’
‘When we got together… for some reason, the people and the media were very interested in celebrity couples. So it was weird,’ he stated in his latest interview with Rolling Stone.
‘We couldn’t go anywhere. And then of course we had times when we would say things that became sound bites or whatever.’
He also addressed one of the most infamous pop-culture myths of the era: the so-called ‘vials of blood’ they allegedly wore around their necks.
Thornton insisted the story has been blown wildly out of proportion.
He said the items weren’t vials at all: ‘We each had a little locket, literally with a drop of blood in them. That’s a romantic little idea, and that’s all that was.’
But over time, he said, public fascination twisted the gesture into something ‘negative.’
‘By the time it’s over, we’re vampires. We live in a dungeon, we drink each other’s blood, that kind of stuff.’
The actor previously talked about the blood necklaces during an appearance at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film Television in 2014.
He said: ‘[A] vial of blood is very simple. Angie came home one day with a kit she bought.
‘You know those lockets you buy that are clear and you put a picture of your grannie in it or something like that and wear it around your neck? That’s what it was.
‘She thought it would be interesting and romantic if we took a little razor blade and sliced our fingers, smeared a little blood on these lockets and you wear it around your neck just like you wear your son or daughter’s baby hair in one.’
The Fargo actor continued, ‘Same thing. From that we were wearing quart jars of blood around our necks.’
Thornton shares daughter Amanda, 46, with ex Melissa Lee Gatlin; sons William, 32, and Harry, 30, with ex-wife Pietra Dawn Cherniak; and daughter Bella, 20, with Connie Angland.
As for Jolie – who is mom to Maddox, 24, Pax, 21, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 19, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne – she’s publicly echoed his affection over the years.
‘I still love him dearly and think the world of him,’ she said in 2008. ‘And I’m proud to have been his wife for a time.’
