Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have steered clear of the limelight since their highly public divorce. News of the breakup dominated news outlets at the time and even prompted Madam Tussauds to physically rip apart waxwork replicas of the pair.

Axar.az reports that, after keeping a low-profile, Jolie has now spoken out publicly about the divorce for the first time. The actor said breaking up with Pitt after ten years together had been “very difficult".

Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September, citing irreconcilable differences. The couple officially got together in 2006 after playing married spies in Mr and Mrs Smith but they only married in 2014.

“It was very difficult. Many people find themselves in this situation,” Jolie told the BBC.

“My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.”

”We are and forever will be a family and so that is how I am coping. I am coping with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer.“

The actor, who is also a UN refugee agency special envoy, made the remarks before the premiere of First They Killed My Father, a film she directed which explores the Cambodian genocide. It was Jolie's first major public appearance since the divorce and she was accompanied by her six children.