Angelina Jolie once hired a hitman to plan her own murder as she battled suicidal thoughts in the past.

The Oscar-winning actress, 49, who is still embroiled in a divorce battle with Brad Pitt, 60, first revealed back in 2001 that she spoke to an assassin during a ‘rather bleak’ time in her life aged 22.

She told IMDB: ‘This is going to sound insane but there was a time I was going to hire somebody to kill me.’

She said she would rather have been murdered than take her own life as the death would have been easier for her loved ones to deal with.

Opening up further in a 2003  The Face interview she said of locating a hitman: ‘They’re not that hard to find in New York. As insane as it sounds, I think a lot of people consider suicide when they’re young.

Angelina Jolie once hired a hitman to plan her own murder as she battled suicidal thoughts aged 22 (pictured 1997 aged 22)

The Oscar-winning actress, 49, who is still embroiled in a divorce battle with Brad Pitt , 60, first revealed back in 2001 that she spoke to an assassin during a ‘rather bleak’ time in her life aged 22 – pictured last month

‘I was very aware that so many people around me, like my mother, would feel as though they didn’t give enough or do enough, if I’d taken my own life. So my solution to that was if someone else had taken my life – like in a ‘robbery’ – then it would be murder and it wouldn’t be that anyone would feel they’d let me down.

Jolie said she  planned to ‘take out cash over a certain amount of time, so there wasn’t a big chunk in my bank account’ to the killer.

However the hitman had a surprising response, with Jolie saying: ‘He was a decent enough person and asked if I could think about it and call him again in two months. Something changed in my life and I figured I’d stick it out.

In 2011 Jolie alluded to a dark past as she told 60 Minutes: ‘I went through heavier, darker times and I survived them. I didn’t die young, so I’m very lucky. There are other artists and people who didn’t survive certain things.

‘I think people can imagine that I did the most dangerous and I did the worst,’ she said at the time.

‘For many reasons I shouldn’t be here. You think of those too many times where you came close to too many dangerous things, too many chances taken too far.’

Talking about her younger years in a conversation with Time, Jolie said motherhood to her six children had enabled her to grow as a person.

She said: ‘I was not a very stable youth. In fact, I never thought I could be anyone’s mom. I remember the decision to become a parent. It wasn’t hard to love. What was hard was knowing that from now on I needed to be the one to make sure everything was OK.

She told IMDB: ‘This is going to sound insane but there was a time I was going to hire somebody to kill me.’ She said she would rather have been murdered than take her own life as the death would have been easier for her loved ones to deal with’ – pictured 1998

However the hitman had a surprising response, with Jolie saying: ‘ He was a decent enough person and asked if I could think about it and call him again in two months’ – pictured 1998

The star is now one of Hollywood’s most iconic actresses, winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar aged 25 for her role in 1999 film, Girl, Interrupted.

Talking to The Times in November 2021, she said: “I’ve had a very blessed life, but I’ve had my own challenges. I’ve had PTSD.

“You often feel that feeling of being broken and wondering what you’re capable of, and being concerned you’re not able to be enough to protect and care for those you love.’

Pitt and Jolie began dating publicly shortly after he and his then-wife Jennifer Aniston announced their divorce in 2005.

The Mr. And Mrs. Smith costars remained unmarried for years despite having multiple adopted and biological children together, but they got engaged in 2012 and finally tied the knot in 2014.

However, it was only around two years later when the Maleficent actress filed for divorce in 2016. She and Pitt were declared legally single in 2019.

Pitt is now dating Ines de Ramon, 35.

This comes amid recent claims that Pitt and Jolie’s divorce – which has now dragged on for eight years – is still ongoing as neither of the stars can ‘let it go.

A source told People ‘their disagreements took over’ in the relationship, adding that things ‘turned nasty and it was not a good situation for anyone.’

‘All the bitterness is partly why the divorce has dragged on for so many years. Neither will let it go. You’d think they would be over it and just settle.’

The star is now a mom of six – she parents Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh 18, and Knox and Vivienne, 16

A separate insider said: ‘Both of them were having issues with each other. The differences added up over time. It’s really sad for the children, but also the parents. Divorce, especially one so high-profile, can be challenging for the whole family.

‘They both care. They both care about the children.’

The couple’s eldest child Shiloh Jolie is moving ahead with her petition to legally drop the actor’s surname – taking out a newspaper ad in The LA Times.

Shiloh, who hired and paid for her own lawyer when she filed to drop the Pitt name on her 18th birthday in May, filed to change her name from Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt to Shiloh Nouvel Jolie, per the newspaper notice obtained by TMZ.

The ad is a standard step before the court will approve a name change.

Pitt has been involved in an ongoing divorce battle for years, seemingly stemming from a 2016 incident on a plane in which Jolie accused Pitt of assaulting her; the family seen in 2011