Everything Angelina Jolie Said About 'Difficult' and 'Painful' Life After Brad Pitt Split In Two New Interviews

In new interviews with both PEOPLE and The New York Times, the actress opens up about the hardships she and her family have faced since the two called it quits in 2016.

"I have had my ups and downs. I guess I am a little bit stronger," she told PEOPLE of her last year. "We all have our difficult times, but as a mother you also have a responsibility first and foremost towards the kids. They are going through their formative years and everything else comes second to that."

While Jolie does plan on getting back into acting, she also told the magazing her focus will continue to be on the couple's six children. "Everything will be around the children, I haven't worked for over a year now because they needed me home," she said. "Everything was just stopped. I'm really sitting and talking with them because everything affects them. Every location, every type of project, I'm going to have to adjust it to however much they can handle."

Speaking with NYT, she added that the kids "really helped me so much, we're really such a unit." "They're the best friends I've ever had," she continued before seemingly shading Pitt, "Nobody in my life has ever stood by me more."

"None of it's easy. It's very, very difficult, a very painful situation, and I just want my family healthy," she told the publication. "They're getting better."

One of the hardest realizations for Jolie was the decision to get her own place, a Los Feliz mansion where Cecil B. DeMille used to live.

"It took me a few months to realize that I was really going to have to do it. That there was going to have to be another base regardless of everything," she said. "That there was going to have to be a home. Another home."

When talking about her public reputation, she also seemed to understand that not everybody is exactly a fan of hers, especially after the breakup.

"I never expect to be the one that everybody understands or likes," she explained, "And that's O.K., because I know who I am, and the kids know who I am."

Click through the articles below to see what else the two have said about each other since the split.