Angelina Jolie attends a red carpet for "Maria" during the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 29, 2024 in Venice, Italy© JB Lacroix,Getty

Angelina Jolie shares how she is 'never first' as a mom to 6 kids

The Maria actress is a mom to Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and twins Vivienne and Knox

Beatriz Colon - New York
New York WriterNew York
September 22, 2024

Angelina Jolie is many things, actress, humanitarian, activist, Oscar winner, but first and foremost, she is a mom.

Since becoming a mom in 2002 when she adopted her son Maddox from Cambodia, the Maria actress has prioritized motherhood above all else, even if it meant stepping away from the entertainment industry.

After welcoming Maddox, 22, the philanthropist also became a mom to Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Vivienne and Knox, who just celebrated their 16th birthday.

Angelina Jolie opens up about her children & personal transition

Recently speaking with Carine Roitfeld for CR Fashion Book, when she was asked by the fashion industry veteran what is one lesson her kids have taught her, she first noted: "There are too many to count or name just one."

Still, she shared: "But the moment you become a parent you are never first again. Your life is for another. It's a beautiful feeling."

Though typically largely private about her personal life, Angelina also shared an especially intimate moment she recently shared with her daughter Vivienne, who she has had a lot of bonding time over the summer as they worked on the now Tony-winning musical 

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Angelina recently stepped out with her son Pax, who is recovering from a motorcycle accident

In honor of that shared experience, Angelina revealed the two got matching "Stay Gold" tattoos.

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"It means so much to us separately and together," she shared, and further revealed: "There is also a bird that I share with some of my children that is personal to us."

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The actress and Vivienne on opening night of The Outsiders

Angelina has previously shared just how much the experience meant to both of them, and their relationship. Speaking with Deadline in June, and recalling when she and Vivienne first saw the show last year, she said: "Really, as a mother, as a person, I was watching it, but I was really watching the effect it was having on my young daughter and what she was telling me about herself, and I was learning what about it was important to her and why it connected so deeply to her."

MORE: Angelina Jolie's son Pax makes brave first red carpet outing since horror crash

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With four of her six kids in 2019

"It was a very different experience of understanding," she noted. "How this is having a significant effect on her as a young person right now, and she's communicating something to me, and that is the power of this material, which was in really good shape even by then."

MORE: Angelina Jolie's son Pax, 20, involved in major car accident two months before e-bike injury

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The Jolie family

"And then I had the privilege of watching everyone work over this last year to make it into what it is, and Vivienne has been there the whole way."

Also asked what about a book from the 60s and a movie from the 80s resonated with Vivienne, who was born in 2008, Angelina shared that though "it's hard to speak for her, because she's a complex young woman," she thinks that the material is "very deep, and it's honest, and it doesn't shy away from real feelings and real discussion and real pain, I think maybe every person that watches it might identify slightly more with one character or another, right, but what I think you see through it all is there is pain in life, right?"

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