Sketchy Things Everyone Ignores About Angelina's Other Marriages
Let's be honest: Angelina Jolie's love life hasn't exactly been conventional. In light of her high-profile divorce from Brad Pitt, we're taking a look back at the weird and often head-scratching moments from her previous two marriages to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, respectively. As you'll soon learn, when we say weird, we mean really, really, really weird.
Her first marriage happened really fast
After meeting on the set of the 1995 movie Hackers, Jolie and Miller famously eloped to Las Vegas in March of 1996, according to Us Weekly. Now, we know what you're thinking: couples get married in Vegas every day. How could that possibly be sketchy? Well, we'll get to that one in a minute. But first ...
The outfits they wore were, uh, interesting
To say that Jolie and Miller's wedding-day outfits were unconventional would be an understatement. Indeed, while reporting on the infamous day, the New York Times described their ensembles as a "testament to Ms. Jolie's offbeat approach to life" and noted, "Mr. Miller wore black leather, while the bride donned black rubber pants and a white shirt with the groom's name written in her blood across the back."
As for why she donned Miller's blood, Jolie said, "It's your husband. You're about to marry him. You can sacrifice a little to make it really special.” She added that she drew her own blood "very carefully with a clean surgical needle." Wait, what?
Their marriage didn't last very long
Once their whirlwind romance settled, Jolie and Miller's marriage was over before you knew it. According to People, the couple separated in 1997 and divorced two years later. "There are no regrets and no bitterness,' Miller said at the time of their split. "Marriage was something that didn't work out, and I had to make the decision sooner or later. I decided to make it sooner."
Curiously enough, in her Aug. 1996 interview with the New York Times, Jolie opened up about the struggles of being married to someone in the spotlight. "It was weird to immediately be married, and then you kind of lose your identity,” she said. ”You're suddenly somebody's wife. And you're like, 'Oh, I'm half of a couple now. I've lost me.' We went on some morning show, and they threw rice on us and they gave us toasters. I was thinking, 'I need to get myself back.'"
In order to find herself again, she took a role opposite David Duchovny and Timothy Hutton in Playing God. Describing her character, Jolie said, "She's not a married woman. She's strong and independent, and I realized I could get it back."
Jolie and Thornton got together under shady circumstances
Jolie met her second husband, Billy Bob Thornton, on the set of the 1999 movie Pushing Tin, while they were reportedly both in other relationships. Thornton was engaged to Laura Dern while Jolie was dating her Playing God co-star Timothy Hutton, according to People. "I'm now happily involved with someone who's my best friend," Thornton told Men's Journal in October 1999 (via People). "We have a dog and a yard."
By May 2000, however, Jolie and Thornton were married. That revelation proved to be especially devastating for Dern, who implied in an interview with Talk magazine (via ABC News) that Thornton had cheated on her. "I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I've never heard from him again," she said. "It's like a sudden death ... For no one has there been any closure or clarity."
They got married super fast
Remember when we said that Jolie's first Vegas wedding was sketchy? Well, that's because she went and did the same thing with Thornton about four years later. On the bright side: Jolie didn't wear Thornton's blood on her outfit, opting for jeans and a sleeveless shirt instead. Still, the fact that she eloped to Vegas for a second time in four years—two months into a new relationship, no less—probably didn't bode well for marriage number two, especially when you consider she had to expedite her first divorce in order to get married a second time. Ah, Hollywood.
The infamous vials of blood
Looking back on it now, Jolie and Thornton's brief marriage is probably best known for their bizarre, all-too-intimate public displays of affection—like, uh, the time they kept making out on the red carpet at the 2000 premiere of Gone in 60 Seconds. Still, that's nothing compared to the time they made headlines for wearing a vial of each other's blood around their necks.
Thornton touched on the infamous accessories in an 2014 interview with students at Loyola Marymount University's School of Film & Television, telling the audience (via The Hollywood Reporter): "Angie came home one day with a kit she bought which is a...You know those lockets you buy that are clear and you put a picture of your grannie in it or something like that and wear it around your neck? That's what it was. She bought two of those."
"We were apart a lot because she's off making Tomb Raider and I'm making Monster's Ball," he continued. "We were on opposite ends, we see each other for two weeks and whatever. She thought it would be interesting and romantic if we took a little razor blade and sliced our fingers, smeared a little blood on these lockets and you wear it around your neck just like you wear your son or daughter's baby hair in one. Same thing. From that we were [rumored to be wearing] quart jars of blood around our necks. And we were vampires and we lived in a dungeon."
That relationship didn't last either
Much like her relationship with Miller, Jolie's marriage to Thornton was over in the blink of an eye; she filed for divorce in July 2002, just two months after their second wedding anniversary.
Speaking to ABC's Nightline in 2012, Thornton admitted his marriage ended due to his own insecurities. "I blew it because I didn't think I was good enough for her," he said. "She has one way she wanted to live her life and I had another way to live mine and I was just too insecure. I did feel like the Phantom of the Opera hiding in the catacombs. People have actually said that I didn't deserve to be with her.
"We had a great time together," he added. "We had a great marriage and I chickened out because I didn't feel good enough. That's all that happened. It was no big deal, we never hated each other."
But hey, maybe Jolie is doing something right
Even though her marriages came with Vegas weddings, awkward make-outs and a whole lot of blood, Jolie has still managed to remain on good terms with both Miller and Thornton. Speaking to BuzzFeed in 2014, Jolie described Miller as "still a great friend" while talking about Hackers. Thornton also confirmed to YourTango that year that he and Jolie "check in on each other all the time." She makes sure I'm doing okay," he added. "I make sure she's doing okay."
In fact, their post-marriage relationship is so solid that Jolie even wrote the foreword to his 2012 book The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts. "To be with him is like being with a mad mathematician," she wrote. "He is constantly counting and repeating. Some people walk through life able to quiet the voices in their heads. He can't. And I, and everyone else who knows him well, we love him for it. I know one thing: The world would certainly be a hell of a lot more dull if that man weren't in it."
Does this mean Jolie and Pitt could end on good terms too? Right now, it's not looking all too likely. But as we've learned here, stranger things have definitely happened.