Angelina Jolie is one proud mother.
“They’re definitely individuals. That makes me very proud because one of the most important things, I think, is to basically not get in their way,” Jolie, 51, told L’Officiel in an interview published Wednesday, September 9. “As a parent, you try to do many things, but you also try to not get in the way of this human being who has a life separate from yours and so much potential in their own mind. You want to make sure that you support them.”
Jolie and ex-husband Brad Pitt share six children: Maddox, 25, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and twins Knox and Vivienne, both 18. (Jolie and Pitt, 62, split in 2016 and settled their divorce in 2024. Since then, Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne have each requested to legally drop the Bullet Train actor’s surname.)
In recent years, many of the former couple’s kids have begun pursuing their own goals and hobbies, including Shiloh, who went viral in 2024 while showing off her dance skills to the song “Tanzania.”
Jolie also shared in her new interview, “Maddox is focusing on being a pilot, and Pax has his photography.”
“Obviously it’s nice for me to be around them, but I am just Mom, wanting to be around her family,” the actress added.
With many of Jolie’s kids entering adulthood, the Oscar winner has begun tackling new solo pursuits.
“I really love and am looking forward to more connection and community. I’m not somebody who vacations or shops or things like that. I envision more field work, more travel and just being out in the world,” she told L’Officiel. “Get my motorcycle back [or] get back in a plane, I don’t know. That’s definitely what my kids want!”
She continued, “They had Mom when Mom needed to be Mom. Now, they’d like me to call them from Tunisia having just landed a plane to meet with local artists. I agree that would be very nice.”
Jolie has a famously tight-knit bond with her offspring.
“My mom and I have a unique, almost kindred relationship that can be hard to put into words,” Zahara said during a Spelman College event with her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in April. “Our love for each other is a found one. I was adopted at 6 months old and given some of the most special and loving people as my siblings — with a mom who raised us on the value of helping others, being kind and always striving for growth as people.”
Zahara, who graduated from Spelman in May, further gushed that she was grateful to have a “role model” in Jolie who demonstrated “what it looks like to be a decent human being.”
Zahara concluded at the time, “For any daughters in the room who may know the feeling of seeing their mom as a superhero and not knowing how she does it, this is something I’ve been trying to understand my whole life.”
