Brad Pitt: ‘I’m very retarded when it comes to expressing emotions’

Brad Pitt has vowed to better express his emotions after his habit of “covering up” played a big part in his 2016 split from wife Angelina Jolie.
The Fight Club star separated from Angelina in September (16) after 11 years together, and in his first interview since the break-up, the actor insists he only has himself to blame for the relationship breakdown.
Speaking to GQ Style magazine, Brad admits he never learned how to really embrace his innermost feelings when it came to his personal life, because his upbringing forced him to “just deal with” his issues.
“I’m personally very retarded when it comes to taking inventory of my emotions. I’m much better at covering up,” the dad-of-six explains. “I grew up with a ‘Father-knows-best’/war mentality – the father is all-powerful, super strong – instead of really knowing the man and his own self-doubt and struggles.”
However, Brad realised something desperately needed to change after Angelina pulled the plug on their two-year marriage, a shock that “ripped apart” their family.
“It’s hit me smack in the face with our divorce: I gotta be more (expressive),” he says. “I gotta be more for them (their children). I have to show them. And I haven’t been great at it.”
Brad, 53, also discusses his new found sobriety after finding himself too reliant on alcohol to drown his sorrows in the aftermath of the Hollywood supercouple’s split, and reveals he started listening to a lot of R&B as he came to terms with the divorce.
“I just got R&B for the first time,” he shares. “R&B comes from great pain, but it’s a celebration. To me, it’s embracing what’s left.”
And through his musical exploration, Brad has become a big fan of Frank Ocean: “I find this young man so special,” he gushes. “Talk about getting to the raw truth. He’s painfully honest. He’s very, very special.”