Angelina Jolie Says Her 6 Kids Are Learning Different Languages, Talks Bonding With Maddox Over Film

The 41-year-old Oscar winner and a UN Goodwill Ambassador made her comments on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour show on June 17, during which she served as a guest editor

By Corinne Heller Jun 17, 2016 6:00 PMTags
Angelina JolieMilos Bicanski/Getty Images

Angelina Jolie has always her own United Nations at home and now it's going to become multilingual.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour show Friday, during which she served as a guest editor, the 41-year-old Oscar winner and a UN Goodwill Ambassador says her and Brad Pitt's six children have been studying languages other than English. The two are parents to Maddox, 14, adopted from Cambodia, Pax, 12, adopted from Vietnam, Zahara, 11, adopted from Ethiopia, Shiloh, 10, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 7.

"I asked them what languages they wanted to learn and [daughter Shiloh]'s learning Khmer, which is the Cambodian language, Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, [Zahara]'s speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic and Knox is learning sign language," Jolie said.

She said none of the kids want to become actors, adding, "They actually are very interested in being musicians."

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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's Kids Through the Years

The program aired ahead of World Refugee Day, which takes place on June 20. She said on BBC Radio 4 her family celebrates World Refugee Day at home and that her kids have met both child refugees and parents of refugees.

"I never want them to meet these people and look at them with, with pity or feel that it's a responsibility or feel that they are glad they survived it," Jolie said. "I want them to meet people around the world and have so much admiration and respect for people suffering different realities and surviving them with such grace and dignity."

"And so, I don't need to tell my children that," she added. "I just introduce my children to these people and these people are so extraordinary and these families are so wonderful and they've taught me so much and so, my children, I just bring them into this environment and they've asked to be in the environment."

Jolie has long advocated for help for the some 60 million displaced refugees around the world as well as other impoverished people around the world, many of whom lack basic necessities crucial for survival.

Jolie also recalled how she gave birth to Shiloh in Namibia, where poverty rates are high, and delivered her via C-section because she was in the breech position. She said she, unlike many of the locals, was able to know this because she was able to get ultrasounds.

"I found even the local hospital with many, many women—and this was a good hospital—did not have an ultrasound machine," Jolie said.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Jolie also talked about her new directing and screenwriting project, the film First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, based on a book by Loung Ung.

"It was Mad who came up to me and said he thought that it was time to do that film and he was ready to learn the history of his country," the actress said about her eldest son, who was adopted in 2002 as a baby from an orphanage in Battambang.

He accompanied the actress on set and the two bonded during the course of making the movie.

"It's been a really special, special experience," she said. "Any mother with a teenager knows it's nice to find something to come together on in the teenage years."

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Angelina Jolie's Teenage Modeling Pics

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