Angelina Jolie is opening up about her younger – darker – self and says a part of her may now be re-emerging.

The actress sat down with Fashion in an interview highlighting the upcoming launch of her clothing line Atelier Jolie, a venture that will combine her socially conscious values ​​with her affinity for fashion. But the Oscar-winning actor talked about more than just Atelier Jolie.

The single mother of six told the outlet that having children saved her. Being a mother, Jolie explained, kept her from delving deeper into the darkness she had faced over the past decade.

She was probably referring to her highly publicized roller coaster relationship with Brad Pitt. He and Jolie met on the set of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” in 2004, tied the knot in 2014 after ten years as a couple, and in 2016, Jolie filed for divorce – a messy and acrimonious resolution that has resulted in various lawsuits and cases in recent years the media for several years. Jolie also likely alluded to a full mastectomy in 2013, a medical decision she wrote about in a New York Times op ed.

“I was 26 when I became a mother,” she told Vogue. “My whole life has changed. Having children saved me – and taught me to be different in this world.”

The actress adopted her son Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt from an orphanage in Cambodia in 2002. Pitt adopted Maddox a few years later.

Before the adoption, she told the Associated Press, she never wanted to be a mother.

“It’s strange, I never wanted to have a baby,” she said. “I never wanted to be pregnant. I never babysat. “I never saw myself as a mother.” But with Maddox, she said her feelings changed.

In late 2005, Jolie adopted daughter Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt, and in 2006, Jolie and Pitt announced that they were expecting a baby. Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt was born this year. Jolie then adopted Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt in 2007. Pitt adopted him in 2008. That same year, Jolie and Pitt announced that Jolie was pregnant again, and in July she gave birth to twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt World.

“I think lately I would have gone down in a much darker way if I didn’t want to live for her,” Jolie told Vogue.

The actress also looked back on her younger years, when she was known for making headlines that cemented her reputation as Hollywood’s “bad girl.” “I’ve been through hard… times and survived them,” she said in a 2011 interview with CBS. “I didn’t die young.”

It’s a label she still owns.

“When I was young, I was pretty dark-skinned,” she told Vogue. “I was a punk, not the popular kid – I went to thrift stores, cut things up, burned little tiny cigarette holes in them: that was me as a teenager, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. Maybe that part of me wants to push back.”