Angelina Jolie became a mom in 2002 when she adopted her first son, Maddox, in Cambodia. The actor went on to welcome five more children with her ex-husband Brad Pitt, and she's made clear that "mother" is her most cherished role. "The center of my life is my kids," she once told the Los Angeles Times (via People).
Few celebrity children have garnered as much media attention as the Jolie-Pitt kids, who made their debuts on magazine covers and have been photographed by paparazzi before they could walk. Now, those kids have grown older—Maddox is 20 and Jolie's twins with Pitt, the youngest of the bunch, are 13—and they've begun to forge on their own paths. "They really help me so much. We're really such a unit," Jolie told The New York Times in 2017 of her kids. "They're the best friends I've ever had. Nobody in my life has ever stood by me more." To see what her six children—and best friends—look like now, read on.
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1 | Maddox Jolie-Pitt
Jun Sato/WireImage via Getty ImagesJolie's first child predated her relationship with Pitt. She adopted Maddox Jolie-Pitt as a baby in 2002 from an orphanage in Cambodia, and Pitt, who she started dating in 2005, later adopted Maddox as well.
Now 20, Maddox has been studying at South Korea's Yonsei University since 2019, a milestone for both him and his mom. "Just sent one off [to college]. I’m so proud of him,” Jolie told Entertainment Tonightof Maddox in Sept. 2019. “I'm so excited, I feel like my world expands as their world expands. I learn so much from them and I love this stage. It’s going to be different for different kids. Maddox was so ready." (He's pictured here with his mom in 2019 when he flew from South Korea to Japan for her movie premiere.) Maddox also worked alongside Jolie as an executive producer on her 2017 movie First They Killed My Father.
However, his relationship with his father has since been frayed. In March 2021, Us Weekly reported that Maddox testified against Pitt in his parents' divorce case, and he allegedly doesn't use the last name "Pitt" on documents unless they're legal.
2 | Pax Jolie-Pitt
Marc Piasecki/GC Images via Getty ImagesJolie adopted then five-year-old Pax Jolie-Pitt in 2007 in Vietnam. People reported at the time that because Vietnam didn't allow unmarried couples to adopt children, Jolie adopted Pax on her own, and Pitt adopted him a year later in the U.S.
Pax, who's now 17, also worked in the camera and electrical department on First They Killed My Father with his mother and older brother. He also had a voice role in 2016's Kung Fu Panda 3, in which his mom starred as the voice of Tigress.
3 | Zahara Jolie-Pitt
Jolie adopted her oldest daughter, Zahara Jolie-Pitt, from Ethiopia in 2005 as a baby. In 2017, she told Hello that "the sound of Zahara's laugh" makes her happier than anything else. "She is one of those people who laughs with her whole body," Jolie said of her now 16-year-old daughter.
The proud mom also told Time in 2020 that she's "learned so much" from Zahara. "She is my family, but she is an extraordinary African woman," she said. "Her connection to her country, her continent, is very—it’s her own, and it’s something I only stand back in awe of."
In 2019, Marie Claire reported that then 14-year-old Zahara had created her own jewelry line. All of the proceeds from the Zahara Collection went to "benefit the Los Angeles-based House of Ruth Shelters, which provided transitional housing for battered women and children," a press release said, according to the magazine.
More recently, on Sept. 3, Jolie shared a photo of Zahara readingToni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, just a few weeks after joining Instagram. "End of #summerreading," Jolie wrote in the caption. "These are some of the favorites in our house."
4 | Shiloh Jolie-Pitt
© Angelina Jolie / InstagramShiloh Jolie-Pitt, the first child Jolie gave birth to in 2006, is now 15 years old. Shortly after Shiloh was born, Jolie and Pitt sold the first images of their baby for $4 million, which they donated to charity, according to ABC News. "While we celebrate the joy of the birth of our daughter, we recognize that 2 million babies born every year in the developing world die on the first day of their lives. These children can be saved, but only if governments around the world make it a priority," Jolie and Pitt said in a statement at the time.
Along with the photo of Zahara reading, Jolie also shared a picture of Shiloh engrossed in The Dark Lady by Akala on Sept. 3. Jolie has said that Shiloh is an avid reader and even helped inspire one of her recent roles. In Aug. 2020, she told Good Morning America she was inspired to produce and lend her voice to the film The One and Only Ivan after Shiloh introduced her to the source material. "My daughter Shiloh read the book. She loved it, and she loved Ivan," Jolie said. "Then I just inquired who was making it, what was happening with it."
5 | Knox Jolie-Pitt
Pierre Suu/GC Images via Getty ImageJolie and Pitt welcomed a set of twins in July 2008, which means that the youngest members of the Jolie-Pitt family are now teens. Older twin Knox Jolie-Pitt—who's named after his paternal great grandfather, Hal Knox Hillhouse—was born one minute before his twin sister in Nice, France, People reports.
According to The Economic Times, the first photos of the twins were sold for $14 million, which Jolie and Pitt also donated to charity. Jonathan Klein, the co-founder and CEO of Getty Images, which captured the images, told the Associated Press at the time that his company was "delighted that all proceeds from these stunning images will once again be donated entirely to charity."
Like his brother Pax, Knox also had a small voice role in Kung Fu Panda 3.
6 | Vivienne Jolie-Pitt
Jeff Spicer/Getty ImagesKnox's twin sister, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, is of course now also 13. Her middle name, Marcheline, is an homage to Jolie's late mom, Marcheline Bertrand.
In 2014, Vivienne appeared in Jolie's movie Maleficent at the age of five in the role of young Aurora. "Vivienne still can’t believe I made her a princess," Jolie joked to People in 2019 ahead of the release of the sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. (Here's Vivienne pictured at the premiere.) "She likes her overalls. I can’t put her in a dress. So she’s like, ‘How could you make me a princess?'"
When asked if any of her kids made cameos in Mistress of Evil, Jolie told People: “I tried. Nobody was interested!” She added: “None of my kids want to be actors. [They’re into] business, humanitarian affairs, things like that.”
But it sounds like she wouldn't have it any other way. "They’re six very strong-minded, thoughtful, worldly individuals," Jolie told Vanity Fair of her kids in 2017. "I’m very proud of them.”
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