Billy Bob Thornton has insisted that he and his ex-wife Angelina Jolie "never" wore vials of each other's blood.

The Landman actor, who was married to the Tomb Raider star between 2000 and 2003, has reflected on becoming a tabloid fixture and being followed around by paparazzi while in the celebrity couple.

"It was pretty weird. When we met, I was the more famous one," he said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "And then when we got together, for some reason, the people and the media are very interested in celebrity couples, that seems to be a very popular thing. So, it was weird. We couldn't go anywhere. I mean, we did, and then of course we had times when we would say things that became sound bites or whatever."

The interviewer then brought up the story about them wearing vials of each other's blood around their necks, and the Armageddon star insisted it was blown out of proportion and they were treated like "vampires".

"(The vials) never existed. We each had a little locket, literally with a drop of blood in them," he explained. "That's a romantic little idea, and that's all that was. But by the time it's over, we're vampires. We live in a dungeon, we drink each other's blood, and this kind of stuff."

Thornton, 70, met Jolie, 50, on the set of 1999's Pushing Tin, and they eloped in Las Vegas in 2000. They adopted a boy named Maddox from Cambodia in 2002 and divorced the following year.

Divulging where they stand 22 years later, Thornton told the publication, "Angelina and I had a great time together. That was one of the greatest times of my life. She and I are still very, very close friends. And that was the one that ended up being a really civilised breakup. We simply split up because our lifestyles were so different."

The Sling Blade actor has been with Connie Angland, his sixth wife, for more than 20 years. They got married in 2014.