What kind of mother treats her kids like you, Angelina?
When Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt married at their chateau in the South of France two years ago after a decade together, they both said they did it for their children.
Their six kids wanted the security of knowing mum and dad were married. ‘ We didn’t realise how much it meant to them,’ Brad said at the time.
And who can forget the pictures in hello! magazine of the happy wedding party of eight, Angelina’s gown poignantly hand- sewn with drawings from their children?
It wasn’t just the nuptial couple who were cementing their commitment to each other; it was, as always with the Brangelina brand, a pictureperfect family affair.
Fast forward to this week and she is now accusing her husband of child abuse after he allegedly became ‘ verbally abusive’ and ‘ physical’ during an alcohol-fuelled altercation aboard their private jet.
Within days Jolie had filed for divorce claiming that it was for ‘the health of my family’. Yes, suddenly it’s ‘my’ family.
Yet while this modern- day humanitarian ‘saint’ — who’s endlessly parading her bleeding heart credentials by piously visiting war zones and refugee camps — destroys her husband’s reputation, shouldn’t we look at her own record as a mum?
She adopted three children from war-torn countries — Maddox, now 15, Pax, 12, and Zahara, 11 — and went on to have three biological children with Pitt; Shiloh, ten, and twins Knox and Vivienne, eight. none of them has been to school for any length of time and there are hairraising accounts of them all running wild at home even though they had six nannies — one per child — along with a tutor and a cook. (Angelina was too busy feeding the world to play any role in the kitchen.)
According to one nanny, Maddox was drinking wine and driving a car round the grounds aged nine while the kids developed an unhealthy obsession with weapons and martial arts.
Oh yes, and their daughter Shiloh has been cross- dressing since the tender age of three-and-a-half and was decked out as a boy at the Brangelina wedding.
The one time the kids seem to be pulled into line is when they are hauled off on regular visits to wartorn countries with mum in her role as a Un ambassador — Maddox was even taken to a refugee camp in Iraq for his eighth birthday present.
Angelina says she wants them to be global citizens and believes the trips are good for their development.
But isn’t the truth that this is all about developing her own global image — transforming it from a moderately successful actress to selfless saint, bestowing munificence on the poor and needy? And using the children to do so?
The kids she too often leaves others to care for at home seem merely to be toys she pulls out of the cupboard to burnish her moral standing on the global stage. And yet she’s the one accusing Brad Pitt of child abuse!