Angelina Jolie is looking at motherhood differently now that all six of her children are entering adulthood and building lives of their own. The 51-year-old actress appears on the cover of L’Officiel and used the accompanying interview to speak candidly about independence, her children’s ambitions and her own plans for a dramatically different future.
Asked how she feels about the independence of her six children, Jolie made it clear that she has never wanted to dictate who they should become.
“They are definitely individuals. It makes me enormously proud because one of the most important things, I think, is essentially just not getting in their way,” she said.
For Jolie, supporting her children has meant allowing their interests and personalities to develop without letting her own fame overshadow them. Several have already started exploring careers far removed from simply being known as the children of two Hollywood stars.
Her older adopted sons, Maddox and Pax, have worked as assistant directors, while both are also pursuing individual interests. “Maddox is focused on becoming a pilot, and Pax is involved in photography,” Jolie explained, adding that she finds it “nice to be around them.”
At the same time, the actress is preparing for a major change of her own. Jolie confirmed that she intends to leave Los Angeles, the city where she was born and where she raised her family. For years, her prolonged custody battle with Brad Pitt prevented her from making that move.
Now she is imagining a lifestyle with considerably fewer roots.
“I want to be a bit of a nomad, I don’t plan to have a permanent base. I imagine more travel and just time in nature. That’s exactly what my kids want! They had a mom when she needed to be a mom. And now they want me to call them from Tunisia, having just landed on a plane to meet local artists,” Jolie said.
The actress also explained that conventional vacations have never particularly appealed to her. Shopping trips and similar leisure activities are not how she prefers to spend her free time, making a more mobile existence seem like a natural next step.
The transition comes at a significant moment for the Jolie-Pitt family. Jolie’s youngest biological children, twins Knox and Vivienne, have now reached adulthood, bringing an end to the decade-long custody dispute between their parents.
During those turbulent years, the relationship between Pitt and several of his children deteriorated dramatically. Four of the former couple’s children — biological daughters Shiloh and Vivienne, adopted son Maddox and adopted daughter Zahara — have dropped the Pitt surname, either officially through legal proceedings or publicly.
Today, 62-year-old Pitt is reported to have almost entirely lost contact with his adult children.
Against that complicated family background, Jolie is emphasizing something different: allowing her children to determine their own identities and futures. And as they increasingly move forward independently, the actress appears ready to do the same — trading a permanent Los Angeles home for travel, nature and a far more nomadic life.
