‘Wake the f**k up’: Brad Pitt’s surprising personal confession

Brad Pitt revealed a surprising personal detail in a new interview, hinting it played a role in the unraveling of his marriage to Angelina Jolie.

Once upon a time in Hollywood, Brad Pitt attended his first AA meeting.

The F1 star broke down the “amazing” experience on the most recent episode of the Armchair Expert podcast.

The actor, 61, recalled being “pretty much on [his] knees” and needing “to wake the f**k up in some areas.”

Pitt explained, “I was trying anything and everything, anything anyone threw at me… It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting.”

Brad Pitt detailed his first AA meeting post-Angelina Jolie divorce. Picture: Getty

While the Oscar winner did not specify when the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting took place, he previously told the New York Times that he went for a year and a half following his 2016 divorce from Angelina Jolie.

Host Dax Shepard praised Pitt on Monday for being “so f**king honest” at the time.

Pitt admitted that while it felt daunting as his turn was “coming around” the circle, he felt inspired after watching “everyone [being] so open.”

The actor discussed the experience on Monday’s “Armchair Expert” podcast.

He remembered, “It gives you permission to go, ‘OK, I’m gonna step out on this edge and see what happens.’ And then I really grew to love it.”

The Golden Globe winner noted that witnessing Shepard’s own honesty “meant a lot to” him.

“Dax was usually near the end because he’s been there awhile,” Pitt said, comparing the former Punk’d prankster, 50, to “an elder statesman” who injected “humour” into his wisdom.

He called the meeting “a really special experience coming from the Ozarks” where he grew up hearing men insist that “everything is great.”

Pitt gushed, “I just thought it was incredible, men sharing their experiences with their foibles, their missteps, their wants, their aches and a lot of humour with it.”

Pitt “removed his drinking priviliges” after his 2016 split from Jolie. Picture:Getty

Brad Pitt and girlfriend Ines de Ramon attends the "Wolfs" red carpet. Picture: Getty

When the Fight Club star first went public with his AA attendance — and subsequently “got admonished by a higher up” — he said it was “freeing” to “expose the ugly sides of” himself.

“I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges,” Pitt added during the 2019 interview.

His drinking problem is said to have contributed to the downfall of his and Jolie’s marriage, which ended after a 2016 plane incident.

Jolie, 50, claimed in court documents that her then-husband physically harmed her and one of their six kids — Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 19, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16.

The former couple share six kids, most of whom Pitt is reportedly estranged from. Picture: Getty

The Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-stars were declared legally single in 2019 and settled their divorce last year.

Pitt, who has moved on with girlfriend Ines de Ramon, is currently estranged from his eldest children despite “several efforts to reconnect” but does see Knox and Vivienne “periodically,” according to Us Weekly.

Vivienne, notably, ditched her dad’s last name in the 2024 Outsiders playbill, with Zahara doing the same in her sorority introduction and Shiloh even recently taking legal action to drop the surname.

This story first appeared in Page Six and was republished with permission.

Originally published as ‘Wake the f**k up’: Brad Pitt’s surprising personal confession