Billy Bob Thornton: Angelina Jolie & I have ‘been friends for years & years’

Angelina Jolie & husband Billy Bob Thornton arriving at the premiere of "Gone In 60 Seconds" at the National Theatre in Westwood, CA  6/5/2000. PIC: GREGG DE GUIRE-GDG/LFI

It really is an annual thing at this point: Billy Bob Thornton makes a comment about his ex-wife Angelina Jolie about once a year. And his comments always make headlines, even though he’s basically been saying the same thing for years. BBT and Angelina have gotten along just fine for years. I think there were a few tricky moments immediately following their divorce in 2003, but after that, they’ve been fine. Angelina gets along with her exes… except Brad Pitt. But she still adores BBT and Jonny Lee Miller. She and JLM were exes-with-benefits for years after they divorced. Anyway, here’s the annual comment from BBT about Jolie:

No bad blood! Billy Bob Thornton opened up exclusively to Us Weekly about his cordial relationship with ex-wife Angelina Jolie nearly two decades after their split.

“We’re good friends. We’ve been friends for years and years and years,” the actor, 64, revealed at Tribeca TV Festival’s presentation of Goliath on Friday, September 13. “So we keep up with each other. She’s not in town a lot, so we don’t see each other much, but we talk.”

Jolie, 44, and the Sling Blade star married in May 2000. Their oftentimes eccentric relationship ended in June 2002 when they separated. The two divorced in May 2003.

[From Us Weekly]

“She’s not in town a lot”… she’s been living permanently in LA for three years! Yes, she filmed in London for a few months and she was in New Mexico for a movie this year, but she really has been spending a lot of time in LA recently. Maybe she just doesn’t want to talk to BBT on the reg anymore! I don’t know. This is such a non-story, but hey, the tabloids dined out for weeks on the fact that Brad Pitt attended Jennifer Aniston’s 50th birthday party this year, so let’s also celebrate the fact that Angelina and BBT have been friendly exes for fifteen years.

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Photos courtesy of Getty and Avalon Red.

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42 Responses to “Billy Bob Thornton: Angelina Jolie & I have ‘been friends for years & years’”

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  1. Snowslow says:

    So Angelina started the sharpie brow trend.

  2. Jem says:

    That top picture of them reminded me of when she wore a vial of his blood around her neck, and when they told a red carpet reporter that they “f—-ed in the car on the way over here.”

    Such sweet memories.

    • Truth hurts says:

      Correction; Define vial. It was a prick in locket.
      They didn’t say that , BBT did to the reporter.
      A lot happened with them but a lot was made up for attention and media purposes. Glad they both have grown.

  3. Fluffy Princess says:

    Her face! She’s so beautiful in her “bad girl” years! And Jonny Lee Miller — still hot. I can see that the whole “friends with benefits” went on for a long time, because. . .he seems like a strong personality, too. I bet their relationship was FIRE. . .in both the good and bad ways. . .

    I know this about BBT, but whatevs. I don’t find him interesting in the least.

  4. Bella Bella says:

    I liked old nose Angelina.

  5. Yoyo says:

    I don’t blame him for telling the media the same story for the past 15 years.
    Why do they keep asking him about Angie’s? the man is married, so disrespectful to his wife.

    • VirgiliaCoriolanus says:

      He keeps answering, that’s why.

      • DS9 says:

        And if he didn’t answer, that would be a story

      • VirgiliaCoriolanus says:

        @DS9
        I doubt it. He could simply say he doesn’t want to be asked about his exes.

        You don’t find it strange that Angelina is NEVER asked about BBT, particularly bc he keeps saying they’re friends. Or shoot–brad on anything to do with his personal life or divorce. He said his piece in 2017 and that was it. Sure journalists can throw a question in, but I doubt that happens very often. The only person I’ve heard of doing it was Oprah. And that is self explanatory.

        BBT obviously keeps answering bc he wants to. And even if the story was he refused to answer…that’s a story with a single headline, if it gets headlines at all. Watch and see if in the next few weeks we’ll get “Angelina homewrecks BBT!” Stories…

      • DS9 says:

        No, I don’t because BBT isn’t doing much while Angie is a Disney asset, has 6 kids, charity projects, and that messy divorce.

        BBT is like the 17th most interesting thing about Angie while Angie is the 2nd most interesting thing about BBT, maaaaybe

    • lucy2 says:

      I think he likes the attention.

      • Berlin says:

        BBT is doing a LOT. HE has that great series on Amazon and has written/produced several films. Goliath is the series and first season was great (not second) Third is starting soon.

  6. SaraR. says:

    I bet, she and Brad will be friends too, it’s just too soon. After all, they will be grandparents together one day! Give them a few years, there are still too many raw emotions there, I think.

    • Valiantly Varnished says:

      Lolol. Yes she will TOTALLY be friends with the guy who possibly physically assaulted one of their children and who has smeared her in the press for the last three years. 🙄

      • SaraR. says:

        I agree with what you said, but I also think that time heals – if children improve their relationship with him, so will she. Of course, that is only my opinion.

      • Valiantly Varnished says:

        @SaraR I think you mean if HE improves his relationship with his children. The onus is not on them to repair the relationship. He is the one who broke it.

      • SaraR. says:

        Yes, that’s what I meant.

      • lucy2 says:

        If he stays sober, and truly makes amends and repairs the relationships, maybe. It’d be healthier for everyone if they weren’t actively angry or bitter towards each other at some point, but who knows.

    • Ok says:

      They could be perfectly civil but something tells me they will not be celebrating grandkids together. They will likely split holidays much like it seems they do now.

  7. Suzieq359 says:

    I’ve always felt that Shiloh is actually JLM’s kid and not Brad’s. I remember her and Johhny coming out of a hotel around the time Shiloh would have been conceived, as she was trying to make Brad jealous at the time. JLM and Brad look enough alike that she could play it off and Brad is too stupid to even question it, plus Angie put it on him lol. She’s not vanilla like Aniston lol. I’ll never be convinced that Shiloh is Brad’s.

    • Valiantly Varnished says:

      Just stop. This is a really gross comment and flat out silly considering that Shiloh looks exactly like Brad and always has.

    • joanne says:

      You don’t need to be convinced. You do need to stop such horrible speculation. It’s wrong on every level. There’s gossip and then there is spreading nasty, malicious rumours.

    • Jaded says:

      Shiloh is a dead ringer for Angelina and Brad – a 50/50 mix. There is NOTHING of JLM in her and that’s a really silly, baseless and hurtful thing to spread around.

  8. smcollins says:

    I found them so OTT when they were together. It never seemed like a true relationship, just a sex & drugs thing that was never meant to be an actual marriage. He only ever spoke of her sexually (most of the time) so it seemed to me she was more his play thing and she was working through some daddy issues. She grew out of it, started her humanitarian work and began the adoption process of Maddox. It was no longer “fun” for BBT so he bounced. At least that’s my recollection of it. It’s nice they were able to be friends, though.

    • Elisa says:

      Your comment is spot on. IMO they were kind of try-hard and off.

    • AmyB says:

      My recollection isn’t so much BBT bounced – I think they grew apart b/c Angelina began to have interest in her humanitarian work, became concerned about things that were beyond her superficial life in Hollywood and started for find her purpose in life, and of course there was the adoption of her first son Maddox. I always had the impression that they really did love one another, hence why they are still friends today. But rather, they just out grew one another and became people with much different interests and focus. She had her son and her humanitarian work and that became her sole focus, much more so than Hollywood; BBT was still very much a movie star and pursuing a music career (from my fuzzy recollection). But I agree, I think they were a “hot” couple for sure, very passionate. That was obvious LOL!

  9. Minxx says:

    LOL. These two were such a classy couple. Leather pants forever! 🤣😂

  10. Bb fan says:

    And is he still friends with Laura Dern???