Angelina Jolie shares why her children are so 'different' to her and Brad Pitt

They're not interested in being celebs

Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Zahara Marley Jolie and Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt attend the "Maria" Premiere during the 62nd New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall on September 29, 2024 in New York City.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Angelina Jolie doesn't think hers and Brad Pitt's children will end up becoming actors.

At the premiere of Angelina's new film Maria in Los Angeles, she was asked whether she believes her kids have any interest in pursuing the same career path as their super famous parents, and she replied pretty unequivocally: "No, I think they're especially shy, very private people," she told E! News. "They want to be private."

The actress shares six children with her ex-husband Brad: Maddox, 23, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and Vivienne and Knox, 16.

Though the children are unlikely to pursue careers in the public eye if their mum is to be believed, they often accompany her to public events to support her.

For example, Pax, Zahara and Maddox came with Angelina to the premiere of Maria at the New York Film Festival in late September.

Though she's not an actress, Angelina's daughter Vivienne is the one out of the six siblings who is most in the public eye: she notably served as her mum's producer's assistant on the Broadway play The Outsiders, meaning she made many theatre-related public appearances at the time.

Speaking to Deadline about Vivienne in June, Angelina said: "My daughter Viv loves theatre. She appreciates all theatre but she certainly knows what she feels close to and what she responds to. She went to see The Outsiders at La Jolla about five times and was telling me about it, and I had read the book, and I’d seen the film years ago."

She added that watching the play helped her better understand her daughter. "So, really, as a mother, as a person, I was watching it, but I was really watching the effect it was having on my young daughter and what she was telling me about herself, and I was learning what about it was important to her and why it connected so deeply to her," Angelina said.

The actress's children have made headlines recently because several of them have dropped "Pitt" from their last names: Shiloh filed to do that in June, Zahara appears not to be using her dad's name in everyday situations, and Vivienne was listed simply as Vivienne Jolie on a Playbill for The Outsiders.

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.