Angelina Jolie has given a rare interview about her home life with her children – while opening up about educating herself during self-isolation and her thoughts on ending racism in the US.
The 45-year-old Oscar-winning actress, who is also a Special Envoy of the High Commissioner for Refugees, spoke with Harper’s Bazaar UK from her Los Feliz, California home, while sharing two candid photos of herself during lockdown.
Angelina, who split from ex-husband Brad Pitt in 2016, said she has been ‘putting all her energy into’ her six children during this time at home, adding: ‘…Like most parents, I focus on staying calm so my children don’t feel anxiety from me on top of all they are worrying about.’
Hitting all the hot topics: Angelina Jolie gave a rare interview about life in lockdown with her six children, revealing that she is focusing on staying ‘calm’ so they don’t feel ‘anxiety’
The Maleficent star lives in a mansion in Los Feliz, just a five minute drive from Pitt’s compound and the former couple have reportedly been getting along well as they share custody of their children.
Brad and Angelina met in 2004 while starring in the hit movie Mr and Mrs Smith together, and they were married from 2014 until September 2016.
Together the couple shares three adopted children: Maddox, 18, from Cambodia, Pax, 16, from Vietnam, and Zahara, 15, from Ethiopia.
They also have three biological children: Shiloh, 14, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 11.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Angelina says her children have remained her prime focus – and she says she has been working on hard on remaining calm throughout lockdown so that her kids don’t feel any additional worry because of her.
‘Like most parents, I focus on staying calm so my children don’t feel anxiety from me on top of all they are worrying about,’ she said in the interview.
‘I put all my energy into them.’
She also shared an update on the family pets, revealing that tragedy struck one of her youngest daughter’s animals.
A rare look: Angelina, 45, spoke to Harper’s Bazaar UK from her Los Feliz home – and she shared two candid images of herself taken by her youngest son Knox, 11
‘During the lockdown, Vivienne’s bunny passed away during a surgery, and we adopted two sweet little ones who are disabled. They need to be in pairs. They are so gentle and it has helped to focus on their care with her at this time. And on the dogs, and snake and lizard…’
But while her children have remained her primary focus during this time, Angelina, who recently donated $200,000 to the NAACP legal defense fund in the wake of George Floyd’s death, has also taken a keen interest in the fight against racism in the US.
‘Having six children, I am reminded daily of what is most important,’ said the Mr And Mrs Smith star.
‘But after almost two decades of international work, this pandemic and this moment in America has made me rethink the needs and suffering within my own country.’
Angelina noted that there are more than 70 million people who have had to ‘flee their homes worldwide because of war and persecution – and there is racism and discrimination in America’.
The Oscar winner and activist called for changes to be made to the legal system, and to policies that only offers protections and rights to people of a certain race – using her adopted daughter Zahara, who is from Ehtiopia, as an example.
‘A system that protects me but might not protect my daughter – or any other man, woman or child in our country based on skin color – is intolerable,’ she said.
Being a mother is her top priority: Together they have raised Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 11. Seen in October 2019
Her first love: ‘Like most parents, I focus on staying calm so my children don’t feel anxiety from me on top of all they are worrying about,’ Angelina, pictured with her kids in 2017, said
‘We need to progress beyond sympathy and good intentions to laws and policies that actually address structural racism and impunity.’
But while Angelina is adamant that structural changes need to be made to the way the country is run, she also praised those people who have risen up and fought for change in the wake of the pandemic and the protests.
‘It feels like the world is waking up, and people are forcing a deeper reckoning within their societies,’ said the former model.
‘It is time to make changes in our laws and our institutions – listening to those who have been most affected and whose voices have been excluded.’
As far as the lockdown, Jolie is not the type of celebrity to complain that she is bored. Rather she looks outside her home and what is happening around the world.
‘I’m deeply worried about the impact of the pandemic and the global economic crisis on refugees,’ said the humanitarian.
‘They are people who have been driven from their homes and countries by bombs, rape and violent persecution in all its forms, long before this virus.
A good dad: Brad, who is pictured with Pax, Shiloh, Maddox, and his mother in Hollywood in 2014, shares custody of the couple’s six children with Angelina
‘They live with xenophobia and racism and prejudice every single day and are some of the most vulnerable people in the world when it comes to the economic consequences of the pandemic.’
And she worries about the abuses within the home.
‘The other horror is domestic violence. The reality before lockdown was that the most dangerous place for a woman to be was in her home. During lockdown, the abuse and level of violence has risen,’ stated the star
‘Above all my concern is for the children. The number of children we know are being abused at this very moment keeps me up at night. There is a global health crisis for children from abuse, neglect and the effects of that trauma. And not nearly enough done to protect them.
‘During lockdown, the abuse and level of violence has risen.’
As far as what she has been reading these days, the list includes Time magazine, The New York Times, the BBC World Service and BLM activists online.
‘Most recently, I’ve watched the documentary I Am Not Your Negro about James Baldwin and the civil-rights movement in America,’ said the Tomb Raider star. ‘Before bed, I’ve been reading Unreasonable Behaviour by Don McCullin and reflecting on how journalism has changed in the last half a century.’
At work: Jolie, a special envoy for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, speaks at a press conference during her visit to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels in 2018
Jolie also shared that she has been working on children’s book with Amnesty International. ‘The reason rights do not reach a child in a country or home is that adults are blocking them,’ said the Salt star. ‘So in many cases, the child cannot depend on the adults.’
The daughter of Jon Voight added, ‘We are working on a book to help children empower themselves. It’s about what to do when your rights are revoked or not granted at the outset. We want to help kids, who are so engaged now, to use their knowledge and fight for their rights and claim them.’
Angelina added ‘we still turn a blind eye to domestic violence’ because we ‘often don’t believe survivors, we don’t put the rights of children first or take their trauma seriously.’
And the star noted that ‘child-protection services are not adequately resourced and funded’.
‘They lack proper training. So do judges,’ she explained, before adding that it is often women who are the biggest victims of these systematic inadequacies.
‘When girls are out of school it leaves many more vulnerable to child marriage, child labour, sexual abuse and other violations of their rights,’ added the star. ‘The pandemic looks set to have knock-on effects on girls in many countries. We know it but still there is inertia.
‘The UN is warning that the pandemic could result in two million more cases of female genital mutilation and 13 million more child marriages over the next decade. That is horrific.
‘There is no easy answer but sounding the alarm on this, urging governments to anticipate where girls are going to be most vulnerable and to act, is essential as a first step.’
