"One of the best times in my life." Billy Bob Thornton spoke about his marriage to Angelina Jolie 22 years after their divorce.

70-year-old Billy Bob Thornton, who was married to Angelina Jolie in the 2000s, spoke about their marriage and relationship 22 years after their divorce.

Billy Bob and Angelina married in 2000 and were considered one of Hollywood's most flamboyant couples. But just three years later, the couple divorced. In a new interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Thornton called his marriage to Jolie "the best time of my life" and admitted that they remain close.

"Angelina and I had a wonderful time together. It was one of the best times of my life. We remain very close friends to this day," the actor said.

Thornton, who has been married six times, added that he and Angelina "split very civilly," citing differences in their outlook on life. Looking back on his marriage, the actor admits that the hype surrounding it "was pretty weird."

"When we first met, I was more famous. And then, when we started dating, for some reason, people and the media showed a lot of interest in celebrity couples; it seemed to be very fashionable."

He recalls that he and Jolie "couldn't go anywhere," and their outings "turned into sensational news." For example, when they mentioned carrying vials of each other's blood, the media practically dubbed them vampires. In reality, as Thornton notes, it was simply a "romantic idea." Like Jolie getting a tattoo of her husband's name.

"We each had a little locket with literally a drop of blood in it. It was a romantic little idea and that was it. But soon [in the media] we became vampires. We [supposedly] live in a dungeon, drink each other's blood and all that."

Angelina also spoke highly of her marriage to Thornton. Five years after their divorce, in 2008, she declared her love for him in an interview. "I still love him very much and hold him in high regard. And I'm proud to have been his wife for a while."

Angelina Jolie, now 50, and Billy Bob Thornton met on the set of "Pushing Tin" in 1998. At the time, Billy Bob was engaged to Laura Dern, and Angelina was married to Jonny Lee Miller (they divorced in 1999). In 2000, when the actors were single, they began dating and married two months later. Three years after their wedding, Thornton filed for divorce. This was a surprise to Angelina, and a couple of months before their split, the couple had planned to adopt a child from Cambodia.

Thornton's marriage to Jolie was his fifth. He has a 46-year-old daughter with his first wife, Melissa Lee Gatlin, sons William and Harry with his fourth wife, Pietra Lone Cherniak, and a 20-year-old daughter, Bella, with his current wife, Connie England. Billy Bob married her in 2014, making this his longest marriage—his previous ones lasted no more than three years.

Shortly after her divorce from Thornton in 2005, Jolie began dating Brad Pitt, who had left his wife, Jennifer Aniston, for her. The couple married in 2014, but the actress filed for divorce two years later. Brad and Angelina have six children, three of whom are adopted.

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