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Brad Pitt Reveals Why He Got Sober, Says Joy Has Been ‘Elusive’ These Days

Becoming a better Brad! Brad Pitt got candid about why he decided to quit drinking in his first magazine interview since his split from Angelina Jolie last fall. Find out more in the video above, and detailed below.

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The 53-year-old actor opened up to GQ Style about how he’s been faring in the months since he moved out of the family home and started to resolve his custody battle over the former couple’s six children, Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8. “You know, I just started therapy,” he said. “I love it, I love it. I went through two therapists to get to the right one.”

Pitt doesn’t characterize his troubled times as a midlife crisis, though. “I interpret a midlife crisis as a fear of growing old and fear of dying, you know, going out and buying a Lamborghini. Actually — they’ve been looking pretty good to me lately!” he joked.

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The Allied actor also revealed that he’s been sober for six months. “Personally, I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something. And you realize that a lot of it is, um — cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I’m running from feelings,” he told GQ. “I’m really, really happy to be done with all of that. I mean, I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know — things I wasn’t dealing with. I was boozing too much. It’s just become a problem. And I’m really happy it’s been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I’ve got my feelings in my fingertips again.”

Prior to giving up booze, he gave up pot. “Back in my stoner days, I wanted to smoke a joint with Jack and Snoop and Willie. You know, when you’re a stoner, you get these really stupid ideas,” he said, noting that it wasn’t hard to stop smoking. “Well, I don’t want to indict the others, but I haven’t made it to Willie yet.”

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Giving up wine wasn’t quite as easy, especially since he lived at Chateau Miraval, his South of France estate with a sprawling 150 acres of vineyards, for several years. “We have a winery,” he said. “I enjoy wine very, very much, but I just ran it into the ground. I had to step away for a minute. And truthfully, I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good.” He decided to walk away from booze because he didn’t “want to live that way anymore.”

Since the divorce, Pitt has been spending his time working on a sculpture at his friend Thomas Houseago’s studio. Still, he says joy is “an elusive thing” for him these days. “It’s been a more painful week than normal — just certain things have come up — but I see joy out the window, and I can see the silhouette of palms and an expression on one of my kids’ faces, a parting smile, or finding some, you know, moment of bliss with the clay. You know, it’s everywhere, it’s got to be found.”

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