In a recent interview, Billy Bob Thornton—Angelina Jolie’s second husband—opened up about why their passionate romance ultimately came to an end, despite the intense love and happy memories they once shared.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, the 70-year-old actor reflected on his marriages and his relationship with Angelina Jolie. Thornton, who is now happily married to his sixth wife, Connie Angland, said he has finally found where he belongs. Looking back, he described his earlier marriages as impulsive decisions: “It was kind of like having a few too many drinks one night and someone says, ‘Let’s get married,’ and you go, ‘Okay.’ I always tell people, at least I tried.”

Thornton also revisited the marriage that attracted the most public attention. He and Jolie married in 2000 and divorced three years later. The actor, known for films such as Landman, said they shared an incredible time together. “That was one of the greatest periods of my life,” he recalled. “To this day, she and I are very, very close friends. And it was also the most civilized breakup. We simply ended things because our lifestyles were too different.”

He added that the intense public curiosity surrounding their relationship at the time felt “pretty strange.” “When we met, I was actually the more famous one,” he explained. “But when we were together, for some reason the media became obsessed with celebrity couples. Everything felt odd. We could hardly go anywhere without something we said turning into a headline.”

Addressing long-standing rumors that he and Jolie once sealed their bond by drinking each other’s blood, Thornton dismissed the myth. “That never really happened,” he said. “We each had a small pendant with literally just a drop of blood inside. It was a small, romantic idea—nothing more. But once the story got exaggerated, suddenly we were portrayed as vampires living in caves and drinking each other’s blood. It all got very bizarre.”

Even years after their split, Thornton continues to speak warmly about Jolie. In a 2018 interview, he said they might still be together if not for their contrasting lifestyles. “She lives a very global life, while I’m more of a stay-at-home, closed-in kind of person,” he explained. “We just wanted to walk different paths.”

Thornton’s son, Harry James Thornton, later revealed that Jolie still sends him Christmas gifts every year. In 2022, he told Entertainment Tonight: “I don’t talk to her every day, but we do catch up from time to time.”

Jolie has also maintained a friendly relationship with her first husband, Jonny Lee Miller, whom she was married to from 1996 to 1999. Earlier this year, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Oscar-winning actress said they remain friends and still talk, noting that both have sons around the same age—something she finds especially meaningful.

Her relationship with Brad Pitt, however, has been far more contentious. The former Hollywood power couple has been locked in a bitter legal battle for nearly a decade, a dispute that remains unresolved to this day.