Angelina Jolie munched on bugs in Cambodia with her children. Picture: BBC

“I think it’s always been a part of the diet, the bugs, but then I think there is a truth to the survival during the war of course,” she said in a short segment for the BBC. “When people were being starved they were able to survive on things like this and they did.”

Jolie is referring to the Khmer Rouge genocide from 1975 to 1979, in which an estimated two million people were killed or died of starvation, adds the news network’s site.

It’s also the topic of her most recent feature film, First They Killed My Father, based on book of the same title by author Loung Ung.

“I came to this country and I fell in love with its people and learned its history, and in doing so learned, how little I actually know about the world,” said Jolie, a UN refugee agency special envoy.

Angelina Jolie with her childreniat the royal residence for a meeting with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni in Siem Reap. Picture: AFP/Tang Chhin SothySource:AFP

She also adopted eldest son Maddox from a Cambodian orphanage in 2002.

“This country, for me was my awakening. I’ll always be grateful to this country. I don’t think I ever could give back as much as this country has given me,” she said.

Angelina Jolie had warm words for her estranged husband Brad Pitt and is optimistic about the future of their family. Picture: AFP/Mark RalstonSource:AFP

It comes as Jolie addressed her high-profile split from Brad Pitt for the first time in an emotional new interview.

“I don’t want to say very much about [the incident] except to say that it was a very difficult time and we are a family,” she told the BBC, with tears in her eyes.

“And we’ll always be a family. And we’ll get through this time and hopefully be a stronger family for it.”

This story originally appeared in The New York Post and has been republished here with permission.