Hitman asked a question that saved Angelina Jolie's life after she tried to hire him to kill her

Angelina Jolie has revealed the one question she was asked by a hitman that ended up saving her life.

The actress, now 49, has previously spoken about a time in her life when she considered paying a stranger to kill her.

Angelina explained that she thought it would be easier for her family to come to terms with her death, if they thought she had been murdered, as opposed to having taken her own life.

Angelina Jolie in 2001 (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP via Getty Images)

"This is going to sound insane but there was a time I was going to hire somebody to kill me," she told IMDb in 2001.

She later opened up about how she found the hitman, telling The Face in 2003: "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.

"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 explained that she had made a plan to withdraw cash from her account in small instalments, so that she wasn't taking out a large chunk all at once.

However, everything changed when the hitman she was going to hire asked a question that ultimately saved her life.

"He was a decent enough person and asked if I could think about it and call him again in two months," she said. "Something changed in my life and I figured I’d stick it out."

Jolie of course went on to be one of the biggest names in Hollywood and now has six children - Maddox, 22, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne - who she shares with ex, Brad Pitt.

Pitt and Jolie met on the set of Mr and Mrs Smith which they both starred in.

While they married in 2014, the pair announced they were separating back in 2016.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have now separated. (Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

Recently, their daughter, Shiloh, has filed a court petition to legally drop her father's last name.

She follows younger sister Vivienne, 15, who was recently credited as 'Vivienne Jolie' in the musical The Outsiders.

Her older sister Zahara, 19, also appears to have unofficially dropped Pitt as a surname, previously introducing herself as Zahara Marley Jolie after she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Spelman College in 2023.

However, it is not known if Zahara and Vivienne have legally dropped the name Pitt.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.