Angelina Jolie: Kids Make Me Feel Like the Most Important Person in the World
 Evan Agostini/AP |
For many women, entering the world of motherhood and facing everything from sweet kisses to sticky fingers, their nervous inclinations are often calmed by their own mother’s guidance. Growing up with a "great mom" who maintained a certain "grace about her" throughout her life, Angelina Jolie shares that after becoming a mother herself, she constantly tried to "study and learn" from her own, Marcheline. "She was the kind of person who loved being a mom" says Angelina, who goes on to say that she does not "wish for anything other than that." With a life that could make luxuries and relaxation number one, Angelina instead says that her priorities revolve around her six children — Maddox Chivan, 7, Pax Thien, 4 ½, Zahara Marley, 3 ½, Shiloh Nouvel, 2, and Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline, 3 months — who every day bring the star "so much joy and peace." While Marcheline kept Angelina centered in the past, these days Angelina turns to her kids after a rough day and admits that she "can have the worst day in the world," but the second she walks through her front door, she is met by her children who seem to make all of her other worries fade away as they "think I’m great."
"They love me. They come to me when they get hurt. I feel like the most important person in the world — and I’ve got that! Anybody who has love in their life has that."
Taking the time to share the joys of having twins, Angelina calls the two newest additions to the Jolie-Pitt family "the sweetest little things." With the experience of welcoming only one child to the family at a time and then giving birth to twins, the 33-year-old can’t fathom how, in the past, each baby wasn’t lonely! "There’s that great thing where you wonder, how it almost seemed lonely for one because you got them together," explains Angelina, who is pleased that her youngest children will "always have each other." In addition to the babies interacting with each other — Angelina shares that they "they put their hands on each other" and are "starting to smile a lot" — the actress has managed to make handling two babies a bit easier by keeping the pair "pretty much on a schedule." Choosing to breastfeed as she did with Shiloh, Angelina — who jokes the decision allows her some "breaks in my day" — says they eat every three hours, although with recent trips to Germany, New York, and New Orleans, they are understandably "a little jet-lagged right now." As for their budding personalities, while it is "so hard to know early on," Angelina reveals that "Knox is very chill [and] likes music" and "Viv’s more aggressive and loud." With six kids — and hints at more in the future — Angelina realizes that she, along with her partner Brad Pitt, are "very lucky" that they have been blessed with such great kids, as she shares her tip on having a big family.
"The trick in having six is, once you pass three or four, it gets so crazy, anyway, that there’s just more chaos — and it’s okay."
Click ‘more’ to read about Angelina’s thoughts on PPD rumors, dealing with the paparazzi, and her children’s way of coping with frequent traveling!
Despite Angelina’s reassurance that the family is doing great, following the birth of the twins it was reported that the star was suffering from severe postpartum depression, a rumor that has simply become one of many, says the actress. "Somebody told me I was depressed. It has been years of people saying things about me, so I do tend to ignore it," explains Angelina. With the constant fabrication of stories and easy access to a growing list of tabloids a click away on the computer, Brad and Angelina’s biggest worry is their children "getting a hold of the Internet and seeing some stories." Instead of focusing on the rumors, she says that her time out of the public eye has been spent focusing on her family, which she calls "so real, close, and happy." Insisting that nothing else matters but the well-being of those she loves, Angelina shares that what’s most important to her is to "wake up, and…make sure everybody’s healthy. My life is being with my family."
In addition to dealing with fabricated front page cover stories, the Jolie-Pitt clan also must deal with the reality that comes along with their celebrity status, including the paparazzi. While Brad and Angelina have had years to cope with the flashing cameras and constant following, when it comes to their children, the couple find themselves explaining the photographers in the simplest of terms. "We usually say that mommy and daddy make movies — that there’s nothing special or different about us. It’s just the fact that we happen to make movies, so people take pictures. It’s one of those things that you really can’t explain," says Angelina, who admits that "it scares them sometimes." Although Angelina wants her kids to be able to enjoy their childhood, including spending time outdoors, she shares that they are not looking to put them "in situations where they’re in a park and they’re going to get too many people around them." In fact, like many celebrity parents, Angelina is no different in wishing that the paparazzi would take advantage of their long lens cameras and stay away from the children, who she believes are put into a scenario that can be "psychologically damaging." While the actress would love a "law that restricts the proximity that a photographer can have to the children," she says that among her six kids, each one handles the paparazzi craze a bit differently. As Angelina laughs that "Shiloh tends to wave," on a more serious note she shares that Zahara becomes quite frightened.
"Zahara hates photography. It makes her very nervous when she’s in the car. A lot of people say to us that she looks very serious. It’s because she’s actually upset when there’s a camera near her. She doesn’t like it."
Jettsetters from the beginning, Angelina says that while the family travels the world, they "do have places that we consider home." With one of their home bases in New Orleans, the family does "have most of our stuff, our books" at the houses that they return to on their downtime. As the couple stress to the kids that certain spots of the world are "home, we always come back to this," the children don’t seem to mind life on the go, as their mom refers to them as "really great travelers." Angelina explains,"We travel so much, and we’re such a big family that they immediately take over an empty room and it’s their home." However, mom and dad tend to help ease the burden of the move by making sure to "fill [the house] up with certain things that we know they love." In order to avoid buying "a bunch of things every time we go to a new place," in addition to having "a lot of the same storybooks and things like that" at each spot, each Jolie-Pitt child has their own special bag that they carry with their most prized possessions.
"Mad has a lot of little army men and military planes. Pax has rope and little stuffed monkeys. Zee Zee has a blanket that was once pink, but is now the dirtiest shade of brown you can imagine. Shiloh has little silkies. They’re like these square things with silk on them that she has to have. Knox and Viv don’t have their things yet, but I’m sure you’ll hear about it when they do."
With six children age seven and under, including two babies, Angelina admits that "there was a discussion in the house" whether the in-demand actress should return to work at all. Having had a year off from filming anything, Angelina shares that Brad was "wonderfully supportive" of the two of them successfully balancing their careers with their growing family, as he explained that by February — when Angelina reveals she is "looking at something" — they will be in a different spot in time. As she says that they are "trying to balance it all," Angelina is motivated by Brad’s positive attitude toward her return to the big screen this winter.
"[Brad said,] ‘We’re here and we’re great. The babies will be sitting up and hanging out in your trailer. It’s going to be all right. The kids are at school, and they will come visit.’"
Source: Changeling Press Tour
