THE JOLIE-PITT POSSE: HAND-ME-DOWNS, HOMESTYLE HAIRCUTS & HEARTS OF GOLD
Nothing like North, not bratty like Blue Ivy, less showy than the Beckhams
THEY’RE probably the most famous half-dozen on the planet, instantly recognisable whether they’re on a Disneyland water ride or in an airport Down Under. There’s little doubt the Jolie-Pitt posse live a life of plenty and privilege. Yet you have to hand it to their parents: despite their looming divorce and Hollywood-royalty status, they’re doing a remarkable job of keeping their kids normal.
Or as normal as you can get in a world where home is a multimillion-dollar mansion, global travel is as commonplace as popping down to the shops, and the red carpet is more a doddle than a dazzle.
Still, just compare Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s kids to other offspring of the A-list set.
You don’t have to be a behavioural expert to see Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy is a precocious little princess. That “cool it, Mom and Dad” moment at the Grammys, the designer wardrobe, big-budget birthday parties, over-the-top toys . . . Blue (6) may be a cutie but it’s safe to say she’s a tad indulged.
Then there’s Kim Kardashian’s little girl North, who owns a playhouse with a $100 000 (R1,2 million) price tag and has at least 200 items of couture clothing in her cupboard. At the age of four.
Victoria and David Beckham may be at pains to make us believe their kids are as “ordinary” as ours – but son Romeo was modelling for Burberry at the age of 12 and Cruz cut a Christmas single when he was just 11.
By comparison the kids of the power couple formerly collectively known as Brangelina are positively down to earth. Here’s why.
Dressed-down duds and home-style haircuts
The paparazzi papped away when Maddox (16), Pax (14), Zahara (13), Shiloh (11) and nine-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne recently joined their mom in Paris.
Angie (42) was in the City of Lights to shoot a new perfume ad for Guerlain and when she wasn’t showing her brood the sights, the kids went around with their bodyguard.
And each time they were spotted on the move or at a museum they were casually dressed in coats, hoodies, camo pants and jeans. Not for this lot the haute couture of highstreet boutiques.
“Angelina is mindful of the fact her children are fortunate and have so much when there is so much suffering in the world,” a source says.
And that means she doesn’t want to flaunt her $170 million (R2 billion) fortune when it comes to shopping for the kids. She’s practical too.
“Angelina doesn’t believe in
spending a lot of money on clothes for the children when they’ll wear them only for a short time,” an insider told women’s lifestyle site Mamamia.
“She tries to get the most out of every item she buys for the kids and most of the stuff she gets is in neutral colours and in various sizes. So that’s why you’ll see Shiloh wearing Zahara’s T-shirt or Vivienne wearing her twin brother’s pants.”
Their hair is also pretty ordinary – well, the younger ones’ anyway. Maddox and Pax are in the full throes of teenagehood and looking pretty trendy these days. But the younger ones are still a little more raggedy.
Shiloh’s short ’do is cute but kind of sticky-uppy and Vivienne is sporting a bob that looks like her mom might have fashioned it in the kitchen.
Genuine do-gooders
Before they popped off to Paris, Zahara and Shiloh were with their mother at a refugee camp in Jordan.
Angelina said her daughters “asked to come to meet with Syrians displaced from the country’s on-going civil war”, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees reported.
Afterwards, the By the Sea actress said, the girls “spent time speaking and playing with children their own age who’ve been forced from their homes, whose family members have been killed or have disappeared”.
“But at the end of the day they’re just children with the same hopes and rights as children in any other nation.”
Angelina tries to include her children in as much of her UN work as possible. “They need to know what’s going on in the world,” she’s said. “And now that they do, they want to help as much as they can.”
In the latest issue of Elle magazine the star stressed how vital it is to her to teach her kids the importance of giving back. And when it came to Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne, she had this to say: “I tell my daughters, ‘What sets you apart is what you’re willing to do for others. Anyone can put on a dress and make-up. It’s your mind that will define you’.”
Rough and tumble
Scratches, bumps, bruises and even broken bones are all part of growing up and this lot have their fair share of scrapes.
Shiloh was spotted with her left arm in a sling last month after breaking her collarbone while snowboarding with her mom and siblings in Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada, in December.
“Angie and the kids were on holiday when Shi fell,” a source told Entertainment Tonight.
“Angelina was thankful for all the help she received from emergency workers and Shiloh is recovering well.”
Two years earlier Pax broke his leg on a family holiday in Phuket, Thailand, and was on crutches for weeks. The trip was action-packed, with the family jet-skiing and jumping off yachts into the ocean.
“The kids take chances like all kids do,” a family source says. “Angie and Brad
‘They need to know what’s going on in the world. And now that they do, they want to help’
have never been ones to wrap them in cotton wool so every now and then they get hurt.”
They’re sweet to one another
Angelina says her kids have learnt to help one another, which “makes my life a whole lot easier”.
“The older ones help the younger ones pack for trips,” she said at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. “They’re quite efficient too.”
And in December, when Angie was honoured with the Global Citizen of the Year Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association, her kids came along to share in her glory. All except Maddox and Vivienne, that is.
Why? Because little Viv had a sore tummy and big brother Maddox stayed with her, a source told American magazine People.
Then there are Zahara and Shiloh. “They’re best friends,” another insider says. “They always have been. Zahara is incredibly funny and Shiloh loves that about her.”
Home is where the school is
The six kids are being home-schooled at the $24 million (R288 million) mansion in Los Feliz, California, their mom bought after the split from their dad.
“They’re all learning the basics like reading and arithmetic but are also taking music classes and learning musical instruments,” the Daily Mail reports.
A while ago the Oscar winner told the BBC her kids were all learning languages. “Shi is learning Khmer, which is the Cambodian language, Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Z is speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic and Knox is learning sign language.”
A team of tutors has been entrusted with the kids’ education, which includes learning how to play a variety of musical instruments.
“The kids are also physically active,” a source told People. “They like soccer and love skateboarding and they take self-defence classes.”
At a December screening of First They Killed My Father, which Angie directed, she said she was “bothered how little I was taught in school.
“I do worry about my children’s education. I home-school them partially because they’re from around the world and I didn’t want them to have the same education I had when it came to Vietnam and Cambodia.”
The kids are doing well, an insider says, and Angelina is completely devoted to them. “She’s busy with everything she’s doing, including being a supermom to her kids.” SOURCES: SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, DAILY MAIL, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, EONLINE, PEOPLE, ALLURE