Brad Pitt Contemplated Suicide Amid Split from Children and Angelina Jolie

In a candid interview with Esquire UK, 62-year-old Brad Pitt spoke out for the first time about a severe emotional crisis. According to the actor, the alienation of his children and the multi-year conflict with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie led him to experience suicidal thoughts, leaving him with an "unbearable, crushing pain."

Pitt emphasized that he considers himself an "inveterate optimist" and never intended to act on those thoughts, but admitted that this period was his darkest trial.

"I never had a suicidal streak... But there was a small window where I just couldn't see a way out. The pain was so crushing that I could physically feel the cold steel of a bullet in my head, and it felt like a relief... I understood suicide in the sense that it is simply a search for release from pain," the actor shared.

According to Pitt, strong survival instincts helped him overcome the crisis. He also added that he suffered a heavy loss when his mother, Jane, passed away a year ago at the age of 84, leaving behind "a gaping, yet achingly beautiful void" in his heart.

In the same interview, Brad Pitt unexpectedly confessed that after seven years of absolute sobriety (which Bradley Cooper had once helped him achieve), he has started allowing himself small amounts of alcohol again.

Despite his personal turmoil, the actor continues to work actively. This autumn, the film Heart of the Beast will hit screens, followed by Quentin Tarantino's The Adventures of Cliff Booth. Pitt is currently in a relationship with jewelry designer Ines de Ramon, though the actor admitted he would give a lot to be fifty again.