In a rare interview, Angelina Jolie gave a glimpse into working on set with her eldest sons.
Maddox and Pax, two of Jolie's six children with ex-husband Brad Pitt, worked as production assistants with her on the recently released biographical film Maria (in the US), based on opera singer Maria Callas.
She said: “The character [Callas] has a lot of pain and they've of course seen me go through a lot of things, but they hadn't experienced me expressing a lot of the pain that usually a parent hides from a child.
“So they were there to witness some of that, but then we would hug or they would bring me cups of tea.”
Jolie went on to say that it was “a new way” of learning how to be open and honest with her kids about how she feels, “in an even greater way”.
The film isn’t available in the UK yet, but it’s scheduled to release in cinemas on January 10.
Here is everything we know about the actors’ children and what they are up to now.
Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt, 23
Jolie and Pitt's oldest child, Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt, was born on August 5, 2001, in Battambang, Cambodia.
After living in an orphanage for seven months, Jolie adopted him after becoming enamoured with the country while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider the previous year. At the time of Maddox’s adoption, Jolie was still married to actor Billy Bob Thornton, but she decided to adopt him on her own.
Jolie was initially nervous about motherhood, writing in Time that she “never thought” she could be a mother because of her unstable childhood. "I remember the decision to become a parent. It wasn’t hard to love. It wasn’t hard to dedicate myself to someone and something greater than my life,” she wrote. “What was hard was knowing that from now on I needed to be the one to make sure everything was okay.”
Jolie told Vanity Fair she felt an instant connection with Maddox at the orphanage. She said she “cried and cried” after seeing him lying in a box suspended from the ceiling.
Jolie and Thornton split up a few months after bringing Maddox to the States. Jolie raised Maddox as a single parent until she started dating Pitt in 2004. The following year, Pitt began the process of adopting Maddox too.
Despite being part of one of the world’s most high-profile families Maddox has maintained a relatively private life. His first red carpet appearance was at the 2004 Venice Film Festival for his mum’s film Shark Tale, where his famous faux hawk hairdo stole the show. His next real public outing was in 2009 when he attended the premiere of Invictus.
Aged 13 in 2015, he worked as a trainee in Jolie’s film By The Sea. Two years later, he was credited as an executive producer for her Netflix film First They Killed My Father in 2017, based on a book about the Cambodian genocide by the Khmer Rouge regime. Jolie later explained that she took Maddox on the film to help him learn "about who he is" and become "that much more connected to his country”.
Maddox is reportedly estranged from his adoptive father Pitt. He testified against Pitt in court after Jolie made allegations of abuse against him during a private jet incident in September 2016. A source told US weekly: “Maddox has already given testimony as an adult in the ongoing custody dispute and it wasn’t very flattering toward Brad.”
In 2019, Maddox left the US to study biochemistry at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. While dropping her eldest off, Jolie admitted to having an “embarrass-your-children ugly cry” as she said goodbye.
Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, 20
Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt was born on November 29, 2003 in Pham Quang Sang, Vietnam.
His biological mother battled addiction and abandoned him when he was only two days old after discovering he had liver problems. When Jolie adopted Pax in 2007, he became the fourth Jolie-Pitt child at the age of three. Jolie adopted him by herself due to Vietnamese laws that make it difficult for unmarried couples to adopt, but Pitt formally adopted him the following year.
His name means “peaceful sky”, with Pax being the Latin word for peace and Thien meaning sky in Vietnamese.
After bringing Pax back to the US, Jolie told People he was a “tough, remarkable little person”.
She said: “He spent 3 1/2 years of his life in one place, in one room, in this one little iron bed with 20 other kids, and having no choice for himself to do things, having no freedom.
“And suddenly, here he is in a very free situation with new brothers and sisters and a mom and dad. He's learning English and he's so loving and he's wild and free 'cause he suddenly has freedom so he's a little wild and crazy.”
In 2011, the Jolie-Pitt family returned to Vietnam to explore Pax's home country before his eighth birthday.
While Pax has enjoyed a life mostly out of the spotlight, he has dabbled in the performance arts. He voiced the character of Yoo on Kung Fu Panda 3 and was a set photographer on Jolie's film First They Killed My Father in August 2022.
An insider told Us Weekly that Pax’s relationship with his father was fraught and they were not speaking.
Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt, 19
Jolie adopted Zahara from Hawassa, Ethiopia, when she was just seven months old, while on a visit with Maddox in 2005. Her then-boyfriend Pitt accompanied her on her second trip to the country to make the adoption official.
Following in her mother’s footsteps, Zahara has a keen eye for fashion. When she was 14, she collaborated with jeweller Robert Procop to create the Zahara Collection jewellery line, with the proceeds going to LA’s House of Ruth Shelters. This provides a transitional home for women and children in need.
Jolie has been outspoken about raising her daughter to be proud of her Ethiopian heritage.
"My daughter is from Ethiopia, one of my children … And I have learned so much from her," she said during a Time 100 Talk in 2020. "She is my family, but she is an extraordinary African woman and her connection to her country, her continent, is her own and it’s something I only stand back in awe of."
Jolie even took Zahara to meet the first female president of Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde, in 2019. They discussed education, period poverty, Ethiopian history and culture, and Jolie’s efforts to treat tuberculosis.
Zahara also seems to have inherited her mother’s penchant for philanthropy. In 2021, the pair discussed the Violence Against Women Act with politicians in the US. In December 2022, she joined her mother on a visit to Washington DC, where they met lawmakers to advocate the protection of crime victims.
Shiloh Nouvel Jolie, 19
Born in Swakopmund, Namibia, in May 2006, Shiloh is Jolie and Pitt’s first biological child.
When she was born, local Namibian governor Samuel Nuuyoma called the birth “an honour for our country”, saying that the “delightful news” of a baby is “something very special in our African tradition”.
Despite her mother hoping that her children would not not also become actors (“I would really prefer they do something else,” she told Elle magazine), Shiloh's first part came when she was just two years old. She and her dad appeared in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in 2008. Six years later, she was offered the part of a young Aurora in her mother's 2014 film Maleficent. However, she rejected the role, and her younger sister Vivienne took it instead.
"I asked Shiloh about being Aurora, and she laughed in my face," Jolie told Elle. "She said she'd be a horned creature." Shiloh went on to voice Shuai Shuai in Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016).
Shiloh has a passion for another performing type – dance. She has practised at an elite dance studio in LA but her father has said he doesn't know where Shiloh got her talent. In an interview with E!, he called himself "Mr. Two Left Feet".
Jolie has said that growing up, Shiloh thought she was "one of the brothers”. She has been progressive in her fashion choices, which Jolie has supported. “I think she is fascinating, the choices she is making,” Jolie told Reuters in 2010.
Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt, 16
In 2008, Jolie and Pitt announced they were expecting another addition to the family when Jolie appeared at the Independent Spirit Awards displaying a visible baby bump. On July 12, Jolie gave birth to twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt in Nice, France. Knox arrived a few minutes before his sister, weighing 5.3 lbs. Later, it was disclosed that the boy was named in honour of Pitt's grandfather, Hal Knox Hillhouse.
After returning from the hospital, the couple described their household as “busy” and credited their older children for helping them look after their younger siblings.
Knox made a rare appearance at the Governor's Awards at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 17, 2024.
Jolie's appearance coincides with her promotion of her most recent movie, Maria, a biopic about opera singer Maria Callas that is already creating Oscar talk.
Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt, 16
Knox’s twin, Vivienne, was born on July 12, 2008.
So far, Vivienne has not been camera shy, making her film debut alongside her mother in Maleficent as a young Princess Aurora
"We think it’s fun for our kids to have cameos and join us on set, but not to be actors," Jolie told Entertainment Weekly. "That’s not our goal, for Brad and I, at all.
"But the other three- and four-year-old [performers] wouldn’t come near me. It had to be a child that liked me and wasn’t afraid of my horns and my eyes and my claws. So it had to be Viv."
Vivienne served as her mother's volunteer assistant on Jolie's upcoming Broadway adaption of Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film The Outsiders.
"Viv reminds me of my mother in that she isn’t focused on being the centre of attention but in being a support to other creatives," Jolie said. "She’s very thoughtful and serious about theatre and working hard to best understand how to contribute."
Outside of her performance arts career, Vivienne is at school and looks after her pet rabbits.
