It’s been 17 years since Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton ended their, um, eccentric
marriage. This star couple was probably the brightest and definitely the craziest in the
Hollywood sky in the ‘00s. They swore to be together until death does them part and
even acquired two grave plots in a cemetery. They adopted a child together,
but a couple of months later their romance was already history. Do you wonder why Jolie-Thornton’s
love story had such an unexpected ending? We doubt it was unexpected, though. We are
here to tell you what really happened between Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton. Keep
watching the video, and don’t forget to subscribe to Rumour Juice YouTube channel.
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44-year-old Thornton and 24-year-old Jolie met in 1999 on the set of “Pushing Tin”,
in which Angelina played Billie’s young wife. Even though the sparks between the actors
started flying immediately, the film’s script couldn’t turn into reality in the blink
of an eye. The thing was that both were attached to other people at the time – Billy to his
fiancee Laura Dern, and Angelina - to her alleged boyfriend Timothy Hutton. Was it that
much of a problem for Thornton and Jolie, though? Apparently, no. In May 2000 the world
was shocked by the news that former co-stars tied the knot in Las Vegas. And what about
Laura Dern that was initially supposed to become Thornton's wife? That’s who must
have been shocked most of all!
"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. It's like sudden death."
One love story was dead, another one was born… It’s a simple routine in the world of Hollywood
tabloids. However, this time the tabloids were flooded by quite peculiar headlines:
“Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie wear vials with each other’s blood!”
“Did you know that Angie and Billie are swapping underwear all the time?”
“Jolie branded herself with giant tattoos of her husband’s name!”
Whoa! Let us put this in order. First of all, Billy and Angie had nothing to do with the
vampire stuff of any kind. They indeed used to wear necklaces with each other’s blood,
but not long ago Thornton revealed that it was not a big and crazy deal: “It was like
‘Hey let’s poke our fingers with a pen and smear a little blood on there and when
we’re away from each other we’ll wear the necklace”. Like, that simple? Yeah.
But by the time it came out in the press, it sounded like the actors were wearing buckets
of blood around their necks. Okay, and what about the underwear exchange rumours? Were
they also exaggerated? Not really. Thornton used to wear Jolie's skimpy lingerie to the
gym. The eccentric actor once admitted he was a little embarrassed when fellow gym members
spotted his underwear riding above the cowboy and Indian pajamas he liked to work out in:
"I thought they were hidden, but some guy kept looking at me strangely. Finally, I said,
'They're my wife's.' I don't think it's strange at all. I wear them on set some days. I like
having her close to me." We mean… Who doesn’t? Just kidding. But seriously, we’re talking
about one of the most beautiful women on Earth, Angelina Jolie, after all. But we bet she
felt the same need to have her hubby around all the time, no matter what. That’s probably
why she ended up making a tattoo with his name on her left arm. And it was one of the
actress’s biggest regrets.
"I'll never be stupid enough to have a man's name tattooed on me again".
Jolie then lasered Billy’s name off her arm, but we probably went a bit far in the
timeline of their relationship. Let’s get back to the moment the actors were still infatuated
with each other.
In 2000 Jolie and Thornton appeared on the red carpet together for “Gone In 60 Seconds”.
During an interview with MTV, they were asked the most exciting thing they’ve ever done
in a car together… Well, you might have guessed the reply.
Every time Thornton was trying to say something, Jolie was biting his face. She was a real
firecracker, huh? To celebrate their one-year anniversary, Jolie wanted to surprise Billy
with a special gift, which turned out to be their grave plots in an Arkansas cemetery.
“I’d called his mother to find out where a lot of his family are buried and I reserved
plots there so that one day when we die, we’ll be next to each other.”
Billy, for his part, gave Angelina a notarized document that said he would be with her forever.
The actors claimed they signed their lives away to each other, but technically, they
just renewed their marriage vows. Thornton and Jolie were also thinking of taking a Disney
cruise for their second honeymoon, as the two liked to watch the animated series ''King
of the Hill'' together, but shortly after their anniversary Thornton went on tour to
promote his new album. Jolie was also busy signing yet another film contract. In the
end of her “New York Times” interview on her portraying Lara Croft, the actress
noted: “I'm just a very normal woman who is crazy about her man.” Little did she
know her main priorities were about to change! The second “Tomb Raider” movie was partly
set in Cambodia. Before going there, Jolie was only concerned about a long period of
time she wouldn’t be able to see Thornton. However, this movie set her on a brand-new
path in life. The thing is that Jolie was struck by the poverty she had witnessed in
Cambodia. Somehow it led her to the idea of adopting a child. To make this dream come
true, both Jolie and Thornton had to undergo a U.S. Immigration Service investigation into
their fitness as adoptive parents. Jolie admits she was a little nervous about the home visit:
"You've got these crazy stories about you, and you're being evaluated whether you can
be a parent, and they say that you're nuts." Honestly, one could be forgiven for having
a few questions about Mr. and Mrs. Thornton. After all, Rolling Stone magazine had just
declared their bond to be America's most dangerous marriage of the ‘00s! But back then, in
2003, the marriage was already about to be over. Shortly after adopting Maddox, Angelina’s
first child, Jolie and Thornton separated. Moreover, it was later announced officially
that Jolie had adopted the child as a single parent. According to Angie, she and Billy
had been drifting apart even before they brought Maddox home: "Billy started focusing on certain
things, his music, and different films. I started focusing on traveling a lot… Billy
and I just became very different people." Thornton recently shared a very similar comment
on their breakup: “Hers is a global lifestyle and mine is an agoraphobic lifestyle. So that’s
really, that’s the only reason we’re probably not still together, maybe. There was a different
path in life we wanted to take.”
While some thought their relationship was extreme, Jolie said she simply wanted to have
fun and make her husband happy. Besides, the most extreme things had happened before she
even met Thornton. For example, Jolie began experimenting with knife-play while being
in one of her first serious relationships. Angie and her then-partner had a night when
they attacked each other! The actress still has a mark next to her jugular vein. Here’s
how the actress explained the attack that turned out to be a weird sexual game: “You’re
young, you’re drunk, you’re in bed, you have knives, s**t happens.” Indeed! By the
age of 20, Jolie had done (quote) “just about every drug possible”. She also experimented
with her bisexuality by starting a relationship with model-actress Jenny Shimizu, whom she
met on the set of 1996’s “Foxfire”. Jolie later said that she would have married
Jenny if she hadn’t married Thornton. However, Shimizu claimed she and Angie continued to
hook up years afterward. O-o-kay… Now we wonder what she meant by saying that!
And what about Thornton’s life before Jolie? Well, he was married… Four times! Not many
details are out there about his marriage because Billy always tried to shy away from the spotlight.
He said he was fairly embraced by the Hollywood community but he’d never been crazy about
its system. The “Fargo” star used to have very few friends within the Hollywood community
and preferred staying at home to attending parties. But he couldn’t keep avoiding the
spotlight while being with Jolie. The actor’s tendency to hide from public attention conflicted
with Angelina’s glamorous life. After the divorce was finalized, Thornton admitted he'd
never felt good enough for Jolie and that he always felt uncomfortable around (quote)
“rich and important people.” Wow, that was harsh! Jolie, however, didn’t wait long
to fire back: “I thought he was amazing. And, now I just feel like I don't know him.
[…] We're not friends."
We all know the details of Jolie’s dating life after her marriage with Thornton. But
what about Billy? Shortly after their split with the “Maleficent” star, he started
a relationship with actress Connie Angland. He initially claimed that he did not want
to marry her. The actor confessed that marriage "doesn't work" for him anymore. However, he
ended up in a seemingly happy relationship. Billy and Connie share a 13-year-old daughter
Bella together, and they did get married back in 2014.
So, does it all mean that the love story of Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton was
closer to an average Hollywood romance than to a crazy and sensuous affair? We don’t
think so. We have all the reasons to claim it was life-changing for both actors. Billy
was the only man who infatuated Angie so much that she tattooed his name on her body. And
Jolie was the only woman to whom the “Goliath” star dedicated a song. Please note that it
happened years after they split! Jolie hasn’t commented much on their relationship since
then, but Billie recently shared some impressions about his ex-wife’s work: “Whether her
movies succeed or fail, she still does what she believes in. And I'll always respect her
for that." Fair enough, Billy! And we sincerely believe their respect is mutual.