Entertainment
10 Things You May Not Know About Maddox, Angelina and Brad’s Son
Maddox’s full name is Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt. He was born on August 5, 2001. He has five other siblings, they are Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, Knox Leon Jolie-Pitt, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt and Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt. He is the first child Angelina Jolie adopted as her own. Together with Brad Pitt, they adopted five more children. Maddox, as with all his adopted brothers and sisters, was not born in America. The life of a celebrity is hard, you have little to no privacy. The life of a celebrity’s child is even harder, you get to live in a world that’s all too overwhelming as a young person. Secrets are what keep people sane, and it’s no different from famous people. Here are ten things you may or may not know about Maddox.
10. Legitimate or Illegitimate Adopted Child?
The person who facilitated Maddox’s adoption was Lauryn Galindo. Lauryn Galindo is an agent working for her sister’s adoption agency, Seattle International Adoptions, based in Seattle. They were indicted by the US government on charges of falsification of documents that result in speeding up the adoption process and enhancing their profits. Lauryn Galindo lived lushly in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She had a luxury apartment, a 24-hour chauffeur, and even had around her bodyguards. Child welfare workers in Cambodia believed that Maddox may have been bought from his poor mother for only one-hundred dollars. They also believed that he was neither orphaned or abandoned.
Angelina Jolie was a victim here. She thought the adoption was clean, legit, and legal. She hired a team of lawyers to contest anyone who was thinking of contesting the legality of Maddox’s adoption. She said she would never rob a mother of her child, stating ‘Maddox is my baby, I can no more imagine living without him than never breathing again.’
Everything turned out well for Maddox and his mom, and hopefully the whole adoption process and regulations in Cambodia. Maddox is now a teenager, living the life anyone would covet and was almost an illegitimate adopted child.
9. Adopted Only by Angelina Jolie?
Anyone following Angelina Jolie’s career and life would know who her husband was before Brad Pitt. Almost everyone would say the same thing too, good for her! The ex-husband was Billy Bob Thornton.
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor mostly, but he also dabbles in writing, directing, singing, and songwriting. He won an Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay in Sling Blade, but has yet to win any for acting and directing. But he has won numerous awards like Best Actor in television for Fargo (2015) and Goliath (2016). His most recent film was Bad Santa 2 and has two films coming out this year London Fields and A Million Little Pieces. His most famous films are Armageddon, Monster’s Ball, The Man Who Wasn’t There and Friday Night Lights.
Billy Bob has married six times and Angelina Jolie was his fifth wife. He was married more times than he was nominated or ever won a Golden Globe Award. His personal life and past relationships had more twists and turns than all his films combined. He was linked to several personalities like Cynda Williams and Laura Dern before she married Angelina. They were married for 3 years, which was about the average duration of his five relationships. While together, they announced that they were going to adopt a child. But as it turned out, it was only Angelina whose name is on the adoption papers, Maddox was never Billy Bob’s adopted father.
8. Real Name: Maddox?
His name today and on all legal papers is Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt. It was Angelina who adopted him in 2002 and Brad Pitt officially adopted him in 2006. It might change again since Brad and Angelina got divorced, but that one is a story for another time.
Maddox was a tiny baby taken care of by an orphanage in the province of Battambang, Cambodia.
Battambang is translated into English as Loss of Staff as referred to an old Khmer legend. It’s also known as the rice bowl of Cambodia. Located in the northwest, it is the fifth largest province in Cambodia, and with a population of a little over 1 million, it is the third most populated. The town is led by a governor and it mostly thrives on agriculture. The economy and civilization, like most provinces in Cambodia, is slow-paced, thus making orphanages more common than any other places in the country.
When Angelina visited the orphanage, she looked at some babies but was waiting for that connection, that tingling feeling you would only get with one baby. She had that with the baby crying and crying in a carriage suspended from the ceiling. His name was Rath Vibol.
7. Played Cupid in Brad and Angelina’s Relationship?
Like the arrows of Cupid, Maddox was the innocent matchmaker for Brad and Angelina. With the proverbial bow and arrow, Maddox was armed and ready to make hearts intertwine with just the power of his personality. It was a personality that melted Mr. Pitt and Mrs. Jolie’s hearts.
Brad and Angelina probably started their love story on the set of the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. A film directed by Doug Liman, they co-starred with then relatively unknowns Adam Brody (Crackle’s StartUp), Kerry Washington (ABC’s Scandal) and Jennifer Morrison (Fox’s House and ABC’s Once Upon A Time). Oh, and Vince Vaughn was there, too. Coincidentally, Jennifer Aniston dated Vince Vaughn after she and Brad broke up, then more coincidentally, they made a film titled The Break-Up.
Brad and Angelina told the story that they were all sprawled on the floor playing with toy cars when little Maddox looked at Brad and said “Dad.” This moment is one of many moments that pushed their relationship forward and probably gave it the nitrous it needed for their marriage after a few years. It also rooted from both their desire to have a family, to have children and Maddox was the living and breathing example of that. What could be a more powerful sign, right?
6. Has No Friends, Why?
Maddox, and his brothers and sisters after him were all, and still are home-schooled. There is no doubt that the quality of education is stellar and world-class. Indeed it is, as Brad and Angelina had in their employ a team of international teachers tasked to nurture and educate the litter of Jolie-Pitts.
It’s more a necessity rather than a choice for the couple, although they previously expressed that they do not like the public school system. But it’s really more on the fact that they are never in one place for a long time. The Hollywood star’s lifestyle require them to travel to different places in the country, even outside the country for months at a time. This has become quite the norm, especially for children growing up in a Hollywood-based family. As a result of this alternative method of education, Maddox learned the Russian and German languages. Kudos to his European-specialized international teachers.
What they are missing probably, is the sense of academic achievement that comes with learning with classmates, grades, and top students’ lists. This method of education also lacks complete emotional development one could only get in a contemporary school setting, or social development, in a word: friends.
Who would Maddox go to when he wants to talk about something that he does not want to talk to his parents about? Goran and Vladimir are busy teaching the other kids.
5. Could be the Next Speed Racer?
On his ninth birthday, Maddox had his party at Go Kart World in Carson, California. Go Kart is a famous place for celebrities to blow off steam and celebrate with their families. Such personalities range from Quentin Tarantino, Cameron Diaz, to Kanye West.
Go Kart is a big place, it has six tracks specialized for every kid (and grown-up’s) driving skill and age. Brad and Angelina rented the whole place for Maddox’s ninth birthday. Brad Pitt is no Speed Racer, he wasn’t even in the movie. It would have been great if Angelina ended up with Vin Diesel, then he would have been a speed demon like his adopted father’s character in the Fast and Furious franchise. But Brad saw how happy his son was racing people around the tracks. Maddox went for hours racing and Brad realized his son is a speed demon. Two years after the Go Kart World-themed party, Brad gave
Maddox a Suzuki DRZ-125. This is a serious dirt bike made for kids and it revs and looks like a grown-up bike if a person who didn’t know anything about dirt bikes looks at it. What a nifty ride! Now that Maddox is of a license-procuring age, what kind of gifts would he be wanting if he still feels the need for speed?
4. Likes Sharp Things?
Angelina Jolie is the daughter of actress Marcheline Bertrand and renowned actor Jon Voight. Bertrand is an actress and humanitarian. Voight is an actor famous for films like Deliverance (1972), Mission: Impossible (1996), Pearl Harbor, National Treasure, and Transformers.
Angelina Jolie is an actress and has starred in a lot of films. The one that launched her in Hollywood superstardom was Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the film Girl, Interrupted. Check out her earlier good movies as well, like Hackers, Playing God, and The Bone Collector.
Angelina Jolie is also a writer and director. She directed Unbroken and has written and directed In The Land of Blood and Honey, By the Sea, and First They Killed My Father. She also starred with Brad Pitt in By the Sea.
Angelina is also known for her fondness for knives, daggers and other sharp weapons. Look back at all the films she’s made and all the times you’ve seen her character with a knife in her hand. This characteristic she passed on to Maddox, as she bought him his first daggers when he was 12-years old. Now, Maddox has his own collection.
3. Active Executive Producer?
Maddox has only appeared sparingly on the big screen. He had a small role in his father’s film World War Z. Blink and you would have missed it. But in a People magazine interview, he shared that he enjoyed working with his mother in the film First They Killed My Father.
First They Killed My Father is a 2017 film directed by Angelina Jolie. It’s a dramatic depicting of the biography of the Cambodian people during a dark and deadly time. This was co-written by Angelina and her friend Loung Ung, a human rights activist. Told in the perspective of Loung Ung as a child, it’s a gripping, emotional drama about love, war, survival, and the human condition. The film received praise and critical acclaim and was Angelina’s most successful film to date.
The executive producer who worked with Angelina in this movie was Maddox. At a very early age, Maddox was an active producer, going to meetings and sets, and mostly observing his mom’s craft. In an interview, he said that his mom was a wonder, she was funny, fun and easy to work with. Don’t be surprised if the mother-son tandem collaborates again on another project.
2. Teenagers, Does it Matter Who They Are or Who Their Parents Are?
It is in every human being’s nature to enter the stage of rebellion during adolescence. A delicate word for it is self-discovery. This is the stage in a person’s life where they find out who they are, what they want to be, and what they aspire, hope or wish to be in the future. And it does not matter if you are a teenager in a lower-class family living in the projects, in an upper-middle-class family living in suburbia, or if your mom and dad are two of the most famous people in Hollywood. They still do the same things an average teenager does.
Maddox is as normal as it comes, he rebels, he watches dirty movies, he does things that his parents don’t know about. He even learned how to curse early, big thanks to his favorite ‘uncle’ Jack Black. Jack Black is Angelina’s co-star in the animated movie series Kung Fu Panda. Angelina wishes Maddox had hung out with Jackie Chan and learned kung fu instead of with Jack Black and learned cuss words and rock and roll.
There is a day that he will come into his own, grow up and be a man, or at least show a glimpse or a fleeting moment of him being a man.
1. What Really Happened on that Fateful Flight?
The flight that ended it all. Maddox had a huge part in this fight between Brad and Angelina. Reports put him right in the middle of it. Some even said he was physically hurt. So, what really happened?
It was the 14 of September, 2016, and Maddox was already a strapping young man of fifteen years. The whole Jolie-Pitt family boarded their private plane and were headed to Los Angeles. Brad was drinking (in an earlier interview, he admitted to boozing lately) on the flight, and Angelina kind of called him out on it. They exchanged words, and the words became shouts, and the shouts sounded violent. Well, as a fifteen-year old young man, the eldest among six siblings, and your dear mother is getting into a violent word-war with a drunken man, Maddox did what any teenager male would do. He came between the fighting adults, tried to stop it and maybe save them again and help their relationship. Brad Pitt said he never hit his son. A witness claims Maddox was hit. Angelina just up and ended it all. What really happened is between these three people. We are imagining in the not too distant future, Angelina or Brad, publishing a memoir and in it a chapter about what really happened on the plane. Or maybe Maddox in a few years telling the world the truth. He could do it. He has a lot of secrets and maybe he’d want to unburden some.