Brad Pitt: ‘I’m not suicidal after Angelina Jolie split – there’s so much love in the world’

Brad Pitt insists he is “not suicidal” following his tumultuous break-up with Angelina Jolie.

The 53-year-old actor says he is spending his time “keeping the ship afloat” and “figuring out the new configuration of our family.”

He also hinted that he might turn his back on acting to help protect his relationship with his six children with Miss Jolie, 41.

In only his second interview since the actress filed for divorce last September, he said, laughing: “I’m not suicidal or something. There’s still much beauty in the world and a lot of love. And a lot of love to be given. It’s all right. It’s just life.”

Speaking of his children — Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10, and twins Vivienne and Knox, eight — Pitt said: “Kids are everything. Kids are your life. They’re taking all the focus, as they should anyway.”

He added: “I feel myself as I’m older gravitating more to the producing side than being in front of the camera. It’s a big commitment, a film, and it does take you away from your family. I just have to balance that. It’s not less important itself, it’s just not as important as family.”

At the end of the couple’s 12-year relationship and two-year marriage, Jolie asked for custody of the children and requested Pitt have visiting rights.

Fight Club star Pitt was cleared after an investigation by social workers into claims he acted aggressively towards Maddox.

In a previous interview in GQ he had revealed his struggles with alcohol and the agony of his family’s travails. In the new interview with Associated Press, published last night, he compared his problems with those facing America.

“Hubris is a trap and it’s the trap of every great nation that has been number one for too long. You start believing your own stink. Anytime I’ve gotten in trouble, it’s because of my own hubris.”

The actor stars as a general in satire War Machine, on Netflix next week. He criticised a plan to draft more US troops back to Afghanistan: “Nothing that we’ve done has said that more troops are going to do anything but cause more damage, more loss of life.”