Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt told PEOPLE in 2017 that his mother is ” a miracle ,” for her parenting as well as her famous acting skills.
Jolie became a mother for the first time when she adopted Maddox in 2002.
Although she welcomed Maddox into her family as a single mother, Pitt later applied to become his adoptive father after when he and Jolie started dating a few years later.
After filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in Cambodia, the actress decided to adopt a child in the country. Although Maddox grew up in the US, Jolie said she tried to maintain her son’s connection to his homeland throughout his childhood. She even starred in the film adaptation of the Cambodian story First They Kills My Father at Maddox’s request – a project they did together in 2017. The producer often talks about her pride for her first son, now 22 years old.
“I’m so happy for [Maddox] because he’s grown up to be such a good man,” Jolie told Entertainment Tonight in 2019. “I say that because he’s smart and he’s doing his job, but he is also very wild. He is balanced in everything. Earlier that year, when Maddox went to Yonsei University in South Korea, Jolie told PEOPLE: “I’m nothing but proud. I look forward to all he will do.” Here’s everything you need to know about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s oldest son, Maddox Jolie-Pitt.
Maddox was born on August 5, 2001 in the town of Battambang, Cambodia. Jolie said she fell in love with the country while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider a year earlier and immediately connected with Maddox when she met him at the orphanage where he spent the first seven months of his life. The By The Sea star told Vanity Fair in 2017 that she “cried and cried” when she saw Maddox for the first time and immediately knew that he was her son. Although Jolie was married to actor Billy Bob Thornton when she met Maddox, she adopted the child herself and the couple broke up a few months later. In 2005, Jolie began dating Pitt and during that year he began the process of becoming Maddox’s adoptive father.
Maddox quickly became interested in his parents’ career and first appeared as a nameless zombie in his father’s 2013 film World War Z. Not long after, he became an executive producer at the age of 15 while working on First They Kills My Father, the film adaptation of her friend Loung Ung’s book about the Cambodian genocide.
“I tried to help wherever I could,” Maddox told PEOPLE in 2017 about the filming experience. He was excited about the opportunity to learn more about the country of his birth and to work with Jolie, whom he loved. “[She] was fun, funny and easy to work with,” he said of his mother. “She is truly a miracle.” While Pitt enjoys sharing his interest in cinema with his son, he said it’s more important to him that Maddox follows his intuition and does what makes him happy. “Listen, I want them to follow their happiness, follow their passion, whatever interests them most,” he said in the press room of the 2020 Oscars. “It’s about guiding you maybe.”
When Maddox visited Cambodia as a child, he really got the chance to learn about the country while working on the movie First They Kills My Father with his mother. “He traveled back and forth [to Cambodia] a lot, but it took him more than four months to be in the country, really reading, listening, learning and absorbing everything about his culture and country [including both] very, very dark things. parts,” Jolie told PEOPLE in 2017. “But Mad knows himself very well and if he says he is ready, I know he knows.”
When asked what he loves most about this country, Maddox said, “by far, the people.” “[They are] calm, relaxed and when they want to do something wild, they do it – like me in some ways,” he explains. “I am proud to be Cambodian”. In addition to filmmaking, Maddox has many interests and skills. “He’s quite capable and always surprises me,” Jolie told PEOPLE in 2017. “He was learning to fly, and then the other day they called me and said, ‘So Mad can fly alone,’ and I almost dropped my phone!”
The Girl, Interrupted star shared that her son is also multilingual, having taken French and Russian classes. “I heard him speaking full, fluent French and they would tell me he had reached a certain level in German and I don’t know,” she shares. “He didn’t do it in front of me.” Maddox also learned to speak Korean before going to college. In addition to filmmaking, Maddox has many interests and skills.
“He’s quite capable and always surprises me,” Jolie told PEOPLE in 2017. “He was learning to fly, and then the other day they called me and said, ‘So Mad can fly alone,’ and I almost dropped my phone!” The Girl, Interrupted star shared that her son is also multilingual, having taken French and Russian classes. “I heard him speaking full, fluent French and they would tell me he had reached a certain level in German and I don’t know,” she shares. “He didn’t do it in front of me.” Maddox also learned to speak Korean before going to college.
In 2019, a source told PEOPLE that Maddox would attend college in South Korea to study biochemistry. “He was accepted to other universities but chose Yonsei [University],” the source said. “He is learning Korean. He has lessons several times a week to prepare.” Jolie was seen dropping Maddox off at his new home in Seoul in August 2019, and she admitted to Entertainment Tonight later that month that despite “embarrassing your baby’s ugly cries,” It was still a sweet family moment. “What was very beautiful was the way people said goodbye,” she recalls. “When you know that your kids love each other and you see the way they… text each other, hug each other, hug each other, support each other, then you feel like they’re going to be okay and they’re going to be okay. will always have each other.”
When Maddox was forced to move home in 2020 and study remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Jolie told DongA Daily: “I couldn’t be happier about Mad’s choice of college. He’s not transferring schools, he’ll come back as soon as everything settles down.” “We are all very happy, as a family, to have the opportunity to get to know Korea more through Maddox and with him during his studies,” Jolie added.
Maddox has attended interesting Hollywood and political events over the years. He has walked the red carpet with his parents many times, including the Governors Awards in 2013, the Tokyo premiere of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil in 2019 and the Eternals UK premiere two years later there.
Maddox even visited the White House in 2023 when he and his mother attended a state dinner hosted by President Joe Biden in honor of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and First Lady Kim Keon Hee. “Asian-American relations are very important to Angelina’s family. She and her children have had close ties to the region, including Korea, for many years,” said a source close to the actress. member told PEOPLE at the time. “Angelina has visited Korea many times for humanitarian and refugee advocacy over the past two decades, as an artist. Angelina and Maddox are honored to attend this State Dinner.”