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He’s so grown up! Maddox Jolie-Pitt was first adopted by his mom, Angelina Jolie, from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia, in March 2002. Now, the actress’ first son is 18 years old and headed off to college. Scroll through the gallery below to see his amazing transformation in the spotlight.
Maddox was adopted when he was just seven months old by the 44-year-old beauty. Angelina had been toying with the idea of adopting a child for some time, but first talked it over with Loung Ung — who wrote her memoir called First, They Killed My Father. “I asked her as a Cambodian orphan if she would be offended for somebody like me, an outsider, [to do that], or if that would be a nice thing,” she told Vanity Fair in September 2017.
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Meant to Be
Loung was thrilled with Angelina’s idea, though. As she toured the orphanage, she said, “I didn’t feel a connection with any of them. They said, ‘There’s one more baby.’” Maddox was lying in a box that was suspended from the ceiling, and they looked at one another. “I cried and cried,” she recalled.
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Life Changes
“When I first came to Cambodia, it changed me,” Angie told The Associated Press in 2016. “It changed my perspective. I realized there was so much about history that I had not been taught in school, and so much about life that I needed to understand, and I was very humbled by it.”
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Mommy Dearest
But Angelina didn’t always have a maternal instinct. “It’s strange. I never wanted to have a baby,” she confessed. “I never wanted to be pregnant. I never babysat. I never thought of myself as a mother.” While she played with children at a Cambodian school, she said, “It was suddenly very clear to me that my son was in the country, somewhere.”
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Expanding the Fam
Angelina bought a house in Cambodia and became a citizen. In 2003, she started the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation and adopted her second child, Zahara, from Ethiopia.
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Kids Everywhere
In 2004, Angelina met her future husband, Brad Pitt, on the set of Mrs. & Mrs Smith, and he formally adopted Maddox and Zahara. Then, Angelina gave birth to Shiloh in 2006 and the twins, Vivienne and Knox, in 2008. In between, they also adopted Pax when he was 3 years old from Vietnam.
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Family Time
The California native has always taken motherhood very seriously. “We want to make sure we don’t build a family so big that we don’t have absolutely enough time to raise them each really well,” she told Vanity Fair in 2008. “Children are clearly a commitment, a bigger commitment [than marriage]. It’s for life.”
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Adventures
The Malficient star loves to bring her children all over the globe. “We travel, and I’m the first person to say, ‘Get the school work done as quickly as possible because let’s go out and explore,” she told The Independent in 2011. “I’d rather them go to a museum and learn to play guitar and read and pick a book they love.”
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Dunzo
The former flames used to take Maddox with them to movie premieres. Unfortunately, Angelina and Brad decided to call it quits in September 2016. The handsome hunk and Angie reached a custody agreement in December.
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Staying Strong
Angelina wanted to set an example for her kids post-divorce. “I do not want my children to be worried about me,” she said. “I think it’s very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything’s going to be alright even when you’re not sure it is.” https://www.intouchweekly.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=249303&action=edit#
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Hard Times
Since the split, Brad hasn’t been spotted with Maddox in quite some time. After Maddox and Brad reportedly got into a fight on a plane in September 2016, it seems like they had a rocky relationship.
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Dad Is Back!
However, it appears that the Oklahoma native is now on good terms with all of his kids.
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Working Together
In 2017, Maddox knew Loung’s story was something special. “He was the one who said, ‘It’s time to do it,’” she told Vanity Fair about making the film First, They Killed My Father. But the mom of six wanted Maddox to be involved in the production of the film and he would be “standing there watching horrors that his countrymen did to each other. [So] he had to be ready,” she explained.
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Aspiring Filmmaker
Maddox was credited as an executive producer on the film and reviewed multiple drafts and gave Loung and his mom notes.
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Eye-Opening Experience
The Hollywood A-lister was happy that Maddox got that experience. “It was a way for him to walk in the steps that most likely his birth parents walked,” she said. Maddox then asked, “Can I go sleep in my house with my friends?” citing their house in the jungle, which she bought in 2002. “I hadn’t heard him refer to it that way. You can’t push it. You can’t say, ‘Isn’t that great?’ You just have to kind of keep bringing them there, putting it in front of them and hope that they find the pride and find the comfort.”
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Shout-Out to Mama
Maddox seems to adore his mother, too. “[She’s] fun, funny and easy to work with,” he gushed. “She’s a wonder.” He also said he “was trying to help wherever I could” with the film.
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Different Parenting Styles
While Angie likes to take her kids on various adventures, the Fight Club alum prefers to lay low. “They do simple things like cook or watch movies,” an insider told Us Weekly about Brad’s parenting. “He encourages them to pursue their hobbies. They love to hang out and talk. Brad talks to them about whatever is on their minds — he’s a great listener.”
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Raising Them Right
Angelina revealed she has done a good job raising her boys. “I could not be prouder of my sons for the men they are becoming, the way they respect their sisters and are respected by them,” she told Elle magazine on August 5.
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Onto the Next
Maddox is also off on his next adventure: college. Apparently, he is set to start classes at South Korea’s Yonsei University where he will be studying biochemistry, People magazine reported. “He has been studying Korean language. He has lessons multiple times a week to prepare,” the source explained. Angelina previously expressed how proud she is of her son. “I look forward to all he will do,” she previously told the outlet.
