Brad Pitt Opens Up On Life With Jennifer Aniston And Angelina Jolie

At 47, Brad Pitt is still a heartthrob, but he’s also a family man. (He and Angelina Jolie have six kids!) In an interview featured in this Sunday’s Parade magazine, the “Moneyball” star opens up about the rather boring life he was living prior to falling in love with Angelina, and why he’s now a “satisfied man.”

On his uninteresting existence with Jennifer Aniston: “I spent the ’90s trying to hide out, trying to duck the full celebrity cacophony. I started to get sick of myself sitting on a couch, holding a joint, hiding out. It started feeling pathetic. It became very clear to me that I was intent on trying to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn’t living an interesting life myself. I think that my marriage [to actress Jennifer Aniston ] had something to do with it. Trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn’t.”

On Angelina: “One of the greatest, smartest things I ever did was give my kids Angie as their mom. She is such a great mom. Oh, man, I’m so happy to have her.”

On being subject to fabrications about his personal life: “I mean, how many stories have you read that aren’t true, stories about me and Angie being married or fighting or splitting up? And when we don’t split up, there’s a whole new round that we’ve made up and we’re back together again! We’ll get married when everyone can. We’re not splitting up. And we don’t have a seventh child yet.”

On being a “satisfied man”: “I put much more emphasis on being a satisfied man. I’m satisfied with making true choices and finding the woman I love, Angie, and building a family that I love so much. A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss. That’s the trade-off. But I’ll take it all.”

On learning to be a parent: “I was surprised at how automatic it is, how much of it is instinctual. And now I have a great confidence and trust in those instincts. I mean, one sound at night and you’re awake and up because they may need you. Or when they start to have a tantrum, you know to divert them from spinning out by helping them focus on something. It just goes on and on. I tell them, ‘You can make a mess, but you’ve got to clean it up.'”