Photo: @billingham22b via Instagram / s_bukley via Shutterstock
The decorated military leader said it was his toughest job ever.
By Kurtis Condra
Last updated on Dec 18, 2023
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's former bodyguard Mark "Billy" Billingham is a highly successful and decorated military leader, having served over 20 years in the Special Air Service (SAS), a British special operations unit.
Despite the hardships he encountered throughout his military career, the former bodyguard has claimed that working for Jolie and Pitt was his hardest job ever, forcing him to quit after just 18 months with the estranged couple.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's bodyguard Mark "Billy" Billingham revealed why he quit in 2016.
"I was Brad and Angelina's head of security. The military set me up perfectly for what I did with them," Billingham explained, speaking to The Sun. However, Billingham revealed that ultimately, the couple's high profile led him to eventually quit. While the job itself was enjoyable, Billingham explained, it began affecting his home life.
"I never had a private life. I was exhausted," Billingham admitted. "I lost direction in my own family life."
Billingham spent more time with the Jolie-Pitt children than his own.
"Angie and Brad are very worried about who goes near their children. It was clear from the start we had great chemistry and they trusted me with the kids," he recalled, explaining that certain people could only look at their children "from a distance but couldn't physically touch them." Jolie and Pitt trusted Billingham, on the other hand, to pretty much have free reign with their six kids.
"I fathered them, basically," Billingham said.
But Billingham was far from a glorified babysitter — there was no shortage of action in his time working for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
Notably, Billingham was working for the family when Jolie was reportedly approached by a "stalker."
"Angie was filming in a crowd and everyone's got smiles on their faces except for one guy. He looked angry," Billingham recounted. "A few days later we were coming off set and this guy came running down the roads with photos to be signed."
Jolie wanted to get out of the vehicle, but Billingham denied her. He retrieved the man's photos, which Jolie confirmed were "personal photos."
“The guy ran off then reappeared days later near the hotel, so I got him arrested," said Billingham. “He’d been following Angie all over the States."
The security guard was also tasked with keeping Jolie and Pitt's image intact.
“It’s not so much about the physical side, but more about the social side," he explained. “I had to make sure their image was protected, that they were dressed properly and not doing silly things that could be caught on camera.”
According to Billingham, that wasn't always easy, as the former bodyguard claimed that both Jolie and Pitt lacked a certain level of common sense. As an example, Billingham remembered the couple asking him questions like, "‘How do I go down to that bar?’ and ‘What do I need to do to get there?’"
“They’re not stupid, but because of the world they live in they just haven’t done something like that for so long. I found that weird," he explained. "It was challenging, but interesting," he ultimately said of his time with the celebrities.
Kurtis Condra is a poet and writer whose work covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.