(NewsNation) — Brad Pitt recently opened up about his time in Alcoholics Anonymous after his divorce from Angelina Jolie, saying he “needed rebooting.”
Pitt spoke with the host of “Armchair Expert,” Dax Shepard, about his time in AA on Monday. They also spoke about meeting each other in AA, as Shepard was in the same group as Pitt.
“I just thought it was just incredible men sharing their experiences. … I thought it was a really special experience,” Pitt revealed.
50-year-old Shepard has been open in the past about his substance abuse and sobriety struggles and asked Pitt if he was “nervous” to talk to him in public after they met in AA. However, Pitt said he was “quite at ease” when speaking with him.
Brad Pitt opened up in AA: ‘I was pretty much on my knees’
Pitt explained in the podcast episode that, even though he felt shy coming into the meeting, he was “pretty much on my knees, and I was really open.” He also said, “It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting. I needed to wake the f— up in some areas.”
He told Shepard that he was a “stubborn f—,” but he also is “pretty good at taking responsibility for it and owning up to it. And now it’s a quest to, you know, ‘What do I do with this? How can I right this?’ And make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Eventually, Pitt started looking forward to his AA meetings, saying that he even approached therapy with the same mindset. “When I jumped into therapy then, I was just like, ‘And I did this and I did that…” He called his approach “desperate.”
This isn’t the first time Pitt has discussed his time in AA. In 2019, he told The New York Times that he entered the program after Angelina Jolie filed for divorce in 2016. At the time, he said, “It was actually really freeing to just expose the ugly sides of yourself. There’s a great value in that.”
Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie recently finalized financials in divorce
Pitt and Jolie’s divorce came after a fight on a private plane, which allegedly occurred because of Pitt’s drinking. Legal filings showed that Pitt had allegedly assaulted two of his children and Jolie on the flight, according to Rolling Stone. The couple has been divorced for years, but the financial arrangements weren’t finalized until the end of 2024.
The one thing that got stuck was Chateau Miraval, the French estate where the couple got married.
FILE – Angelina Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt pose for a photo at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards 2015 at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, on Nov. 4, 2015. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File) 
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 04: 2015 Entertainment Innovator Angelina Jolie Pitt (L) and Brad Pitt attend the WSJ. Magazine 2015 Innovator Awards at the Museum of Modern Art on November 4, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for WSJ. Magazine 2015 Innovator Awards) 
HOLLYWOOD, CA – NOVEMBER 05: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt attend the premiere of “By the Sea” at the 2015 AFI Fest at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on November 5, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic) 
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 08: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attend a private reception as costumes and props from Disney’s “Maleficent” are exhibited in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital at Kensington Palace on May 8, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images) 
In this combination photo, Angelina Jolie, left, arrives at the European Premiere of “Maleficent Mistress of Evil” in central London on Oct. 9, 2019, and Brad Pitt poses in the press room at the Oscars on April 25, 2021, in Los Angeles. A California appeals court on Friday, July 23, 2021, disqualified a private judge being used by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in their divorce case, handing Jolie a major victory. The 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed with Jolie that Judge John Ouderkirk didn’t sufficiently disclose business relationships with Pitt’s attorneys. The decision means that the custody fight over the couple’s five minor children, which was nearing an end, could be starting over. (AP Photo) 
(WGNO/Kenny Lopez) 
An aerial view taken on May 31, 2008 in Le Val, southeastern France, shows the Chateau Miraval, a vineyard estate owned by US businessman Tom Bove. US actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are relocating to the chateau, a local official told AFP. AFP PHOTO MICHEL GANGNE (Photo credit should read MICHEL GANGNE/AFP via Getty Images)
Jolie sold her half of the winery in October 2021 to Tenute del Mondo. Court papers showed that the couple “agreed they would never sell their respective interests in Miraval without the other’s consent.” An insider told NewsNation’s Paula Froelich, “She got angry because a judge awarded Brad 50/50 custody, and Brad finds out from the press she had sold her part of the business.”
Pitt has been successful in keeping control over the vineyard because a Luxembourg court ruled that 10% of the winery that is controlled by Tenute had to be held in escrow for two years. Before they got married, they had bought the vineyard for a 60/40 split, but Pitt had eventually gifted Jolie with 10% more as a wedding gift for one euro. That is the 10% that is being held.
The case is still being fought in the Luxembourg court. Pitt and Jolie were both recently in Manhattan, the former being in town for the premiere of “F1: The Movie.” An insider told Froelich, “It’s just insane that Angelina would show up in the city the same week of Brad’s premiere. She just can’t stand for him to get any good press. It’s like she’s haunting him.”