85-year-old Jon Voight clearly has a hard time keeping quiet when he should. Despite knowing that Angelina Jolie despises public comments about her personal life, he just can’t resist bringing up the “forbidden” topic again and again. In a recent interview, Voight once again spoke out about his daughter’s issues, specifically her controversial divorce from Brad Pitt.
The actor was well aware that his comments would likely worsen his relationship with his daughter, but he readily agreed to answer the interviewer’s questions. He stated that both Jolie and Pitt should primarily focus on their children.
“I, of course, love both the kids and Angelina very much. But they should find a way to end this absurdity! The children need stability,”
Voight said, referring to the divorce proceedings between Jolie and Pitt that have dragged on unrealistically for eight years. While his words may not have been entirely unjustified, Jolie, as expected, once again severed ties with her father. They had just begun to rebuild their relationship after tensions flared last year due to his careless comments. At that time, Jon, who holds opposing political views to Angelina, criticized her for supporting Palestine in the conflict with Israel, even publicly suggesting that her position was due to being “brainwashed by the UN.”
Jolie and Voight have a complex relationship characterized by periodic shifts between intense affection and hatred. Jolie was deeply attached to her mother, Marcheline Bertrand. When Bertrand passed away from cancer in 2007, Angelina blamed her father for what she perceived as having ruined the life of the woman who gave birth to and raised her. Voight was, indeed, an unfit husband. Before his divorce from Marcheline, which happened when Jolie was only four, he consistently cheated on her. After their separation, he did little to help Bertrand, who, having abandoned her acting career, raised their children—Angelina and James—on her own.
Since then, each attempt at reconciliation between Jolie and Voight has ended with his public disclosures that have only strained their relationship further. The most damaging comments came after working together on *Lara Croft*, when Voight claimed that his daughter had “serious mental problems” and urgently needed professional help. After that, Angelina did not speak to him for more than six years. Thus, his recent interview is merely a continuation of his previous pattern. Whether Jolie will eventually forgive her father again or finally cut him out of her life for good remains to be seen.
