Angelina Jolie explains divorce from Brad Pitt was for 'well-being' of kids

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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt shocked fans with their divorce announcement in 2016.

Now, the actress, 45, is opening up about why she made the decision to leave the father of her six kids -- Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 12, and 11-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

“I separated for the well-being of my family. It was the right decision,” the "Maleficent" star told Vogue India magazine. “I continue to focus on their healing."

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Jolie added, "Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds. In fact, they are six very brave, very strong young people.”

Pitt and Jolie were together since 2004 but only married in August 2014 at their estate in France.

Angelina Jolie with children (L-R) Knox Leon Jolie-Pitt, Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt and Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt attend "The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind" Special Screening at Crosby Street Hotel on Feb. 25, 2019 in New York City. (Getty)

Jolie previously told Harper's Bazaar magazine how the last few years have been physically, emotionally and mentally turbulent for her.

“My body has been through a lot over the past decade, particularly the past four years, and I have both the visible and invisible scars to show for it,” Jolie said.

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“The invisible ones are harder to wrestle with. Life takes many turns. Sometimes you get hurt, you see those you love in pain, and you can’t be as free and open as your spirit desires. It’s not new or old, but I do feel the blood returning to my body," she added.

(L-R) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attend the premiere of HBO Films' "The Normal Heart" at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Besides her marriage ending on the public stage, the Oscar winner underwent a preventative double mastectomy in 2013 followed by breast reconstruction after testing positive for the BRCA gene. In 2015, the actress also had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.

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Jolie admitted it has taken a while for her to feel like her old self. She said, “The part of us that is free, wild, open, curious can get shut down by life. By pain or by harm."