Angelina Jolie has six children, three of whom she has adopted. Jolie spoke candidly about the adoption process and how she celebrates the ancestry of each of her children in a recent interview with Vogue India.

Jolie is reflecting about her own family, how adoption is a “amazing journey to share” between children and their parents, and how refugees should be protected “protection when needed.”

In terms of her acting profession, she has received some fairly amazing training throughout the course of her 45 years. She was born to Hollywood royalty Jon Voight and the late Marcheline Bertrand and studied acting at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute before appearing in films such as Girl, Interrupted (1999), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2000, and Clint Eastwood’s Changeling (2000). (2008).

Maddox Chivan, 18, Pax Thien, 16, and Zahara Marley, 15, are her adoptive children.

Brad and Angelina have three biological children: Shiloh, 14, and Knox and Vivienne, 11 years old twins.

Speaking about how she came to adopt her eldest child, Maddox, Jolie explained, “Cambodia was the country that made me aware of refugees. It made me engage in foreign affairs in a way I never had, and join UNHCR. Above all, it made me a mom.”

“In 2001, I was in a school programme in Samlout playing blocks on the floor with a little kid and as clear as day I thought: ‘My son is here,’” she revealed. “A few months later I met baby Mad at an orphanage. I can’t explain it and am not one to believe in messages or superstition. But it was just real and clear.”

Jolie stated she had seen a lot as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She witnessed “a lack of will to protect and defend basic human rights, and a lack of diplomacy and accountability. A lot of people profit from the chaos of broken, dependent countries and it sickens me. We also see leaders spread fear for political gain, and nationalism rising — anger at ‘the other.’ ”

Jolie’s first assignment took her to Sierra Leone in the last years of the country’s civil war, which lasted from 1991 to 2002. Since then, she has visited countries such as Lebanon to meet Syrian refugee children and Iraqi Kurdistan to raise awareness of the 3.3 million Iraqis who are internally displaced.

Angelina said: “What is important is to speak with openness about all of it and to share. ‘Adoption’ and ‘orphanage’ are positive words in our home.

“With my adopted children, I can’t speak of pregnancy, but I speak with much detail and love about the journey to find them and what it was like to look in their eyes for the first time.”

“All adopted children come with a beautiful mystery of a world that is meeting yours,” Jolie said. “When they are from another race and foreign land, that mystery, that gift, is so full. For them, they must never lose touch with where they came from. They have roots that you do not. Honour them. Learn from them. It’s the most amazing journey to share. They are not entering your world, you are entering each other’s worlds.”

The actress beautifully concluded, “I am very blessed to have been allowed to be their mom. I am grateful every day.”

The Maleficent: Mistress of Evil actress stated that she views “all people as equal” and that she “cannot stand by” in the face of “abuse and suffering” throughout the world.

“Around the world, people are fleeing gas attacks, rape, female genital mutilation, beatings, persecution, murder. They do not flee to improve their lives. They flee because they cannot survive otherwise,” Jolie said. “What I really want is to see an end to what forces people out of their homelands. I want to see prevention when we can, protection when needed and accountability when crimes are committed.”

On a diplomatic level, Jolie represents the agency and the commissioner. “My work now involves fighting alongside my colleagues for refugees to have rights and protection, to resist forced returns, and to push for better learning opportunities,” she explains. “UNHCR is a protection agency. We help those who have fled war and persecution, who’ve had their rights violated.”

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie dated from 2005, and they married in 2014.
Their marriage ended two years later in 2016, when they divorced and Angelina shared custody of their children.