In a remarkable BBC World News exclusive, Angelina Jolie finally spoke about her divorce from Brad Pitt, holding back tears while discussing her very “difficult” year.

“I don’t want to say very much about that, except to say it was a very difficult time,” Angelina said. “We are a family and we will always be a family, and we will get through this time and hopefully be a stronger family for it.”

The actress was promoting her latest film First They Killed My Father, which is a true life account of the Khmer Rouge genocide through the eyes of one child. She was introduced to Cambodia (where the film takes place) while shooting Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and has since become connected to it — so much so that she adopted her oldest son Maddox, who is Cambodian by blood.

“We are and forever will be a family and so that is how I am coping,” she added about the divorce. “I am coping with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer… It’s been a difficult few months. Right now, I’m going through a moment when just everybody’s in my room. Two hamsters, two dogs and two children at the moment. It’s wonderful. But, usually, I just wake up trying to figure out who’s going to get [the] dog out, who’s going to start the pancakes and did anybody brush their teeth.”

Angelina says she hopes that in five years she’ll be traveling “around the world visiting my children. Everything I do I hope is that I represent something, and I represent the right things to my children, and give them the right sense of what they’re capable of, and the world as it should be seen.”

It was reported last month in a joint statement that Angelina and Brad’s counsel have signed agreements to preserve the privacy rights of their children and family be keeping all court documents confidential and engaging a private judge to make any necessary legal decisions.