'Separated for well-being of my family': Angelina Jolie opens up about 'right decision' of parting ways with Brad Pitt

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has now opened up about her 2016 divorce announcement with Brad Pitt, which shocked fans.

Fox News said the 45-year-old Jolie opened up about leaving the father of her six kids,18-year-old Maddox, 16-year-old Pax, 15-year-old Zahara, 12-year-old, Shiloh, and 11-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. "I separated for the well-being of my family. It was the right decision. I continue to focus on their healing," the Oscar-winning star told Vogue India magazine.

The Maleficent star 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 truth and their minds. They are six very brave, very strong young people."

Since 2004, Pitt and Jolie were together but only married in August 2014 at their estate in France. The Mr and Mrs Smith star 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.

"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.

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

She 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."