The growing pains of Maddox and Pax Jolie-Pitt

Maddox and Pax Jolie-Pitt
Maddox: adoption
Angelina Jolie: single mother
Brad Pitt adopts Maddox
Zahara Jolie-Pitt
Pax Jolie-Pitt
Shiloh
Knox and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt
Six brothers and sisters
Travelling with Zahara and Maddox Jolie-Pitt
Shiloh Jolie-Pitt
Maddox and Pax: childhood
Maddox Jolie-Pitt as a child
Maddox, at the Grand Prix with dad
Pax Jolie-Pitt as a child
Pax Jolie-Pitt and his bear
Pax: voice actor
Maddox: producer
Maddox and Pax like to make music
Maddox and Pax: adolescence
Maddox: Cambodian roots
Pax: Vietnamese roots
When Brad Pitt and Maddox had a fight
A turning point for the Jolie-Pitt family
Brangelina: split up
Angelina and Brad: custody of the children
Maddox:
Lonely Christmas for Brad Pitt
Maddox: closer to his mother
Maddox: university in South Korea
Angelina Jolie:
Return with the family
Maddox, Pax, and the rest
A happy family
Maddox and Pax Jolie-Pitt

Maddox and Pax Jolie Pitt are the oldest sons of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The celebrity couple - when they were still together - adopted them from Cambodia and Vietnam. What is it like to be adopted in a western family, and a world famous one at that? This is their remarkable life story.

Maddox: adoption

Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt was born on August 5, 2001 in Cambodia with the name Rath Vibol. When he was three months old, Angelina Jolie encountered him in an orphanage in Battambang. She applied to adopt him and completed the process by 2002.

Angelina Jolie: single mother

Angelina announced the adoption with her then-partner, Billy Bob Thornton, but the relationship ended soon thereafter. She adopted Maddox as a single parent.

Brad Pitt adopts Maddox

When Maddox was four years old, Angelina and Brad Pitt became a couple at the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. After their relationship became public in 2006, Brad decided to adopt Maddox and be his legal father.

Zahara Jolie-Pitt

Brad also adopted Zahara, Angelina's second foster child, as his own daughter. Zahara was born in Ethiopia on January 8, 2005.

Pax Jolie-Pitt

In 2007, the famous Brangelina couple adopted their second son Pax. He was born on November 29, 2003 in Vietnam and lived in an orphanage outside Ho Chi Minh City for the first 3.5 years of his life. His birth name was Pham Quang Sang. Brad and Angelina named him Pax Thien.

 

Shiloh

Pax, Maddox, and Zahara would have three more siblings. Brangelina's eldest biological child, Shiloh, was born in 2006.

Knox and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt

Then came the twins Knox and Vivienne in 2008.

Six brothers and sisters

Angelina Jolie always appears in public as a proud and devoted mother to her six children.

Travelling with Zahara and Maddox Jolie-Pitt

She has always stayed close to her children, whether she went for a walk around the block or to the other side of the world. The Jolie-Pitt children were homeschooled and became a very close bunch.

Shiloh Jolie-Pitt

Shiloh would grow up to be an inspiring child and teen. She preferred to dress as a boy, and the relaxed parenting style of Brangelina was considered exemplary for the LGTBQ community. Lately, as a teenager, she's been dressing more like a young woman.

Maddox and Pax: childhood

Maddox and Pax grew up to be best friends. They were often seen outside playing together.

Maddox Jolie-Pitt as a child

Maddox appeared as the quieter one of the two boys whenever he was spotted in public.

Maddox, at the Grand Prix with dad

His rock-and-roll fashion style revealed some of the freedom in the Jolie-Pitt household. Several media have reported that the home-schooled siblings could wear and eat whatever they wanted and go to bed whenever they felt like it.

Pax Jolie-Pitt as a child

Pax appeared more outgoing in public and smiled when strangers greeted him.

Pax Jolie-Pitt and his bear

He was inseparable from his purple Legoland teddy bear for a while.

Pax: voice actor

Pax became a voice actor in the animation film 'Kung Fu Panda 3,' together with his mom and his siblings Knox, Shiloh, and Zahara.

Maddox: producer

Maddox was more interested in work behind the screens. He has a production credit the movie 'First They Killed My Father' (2017). Directed by his mother, the movie is about life under the regime of the Khmer Rouge.

Maddox and Pax like to make music

Vanity Fair reports that the brothers share an interest in music: Maddox plays the guitar and Pax likes to spin records as a DJ.

Maddox and Pax: adolescence

As adolescents, they undoubtedly had their clashes with parents Brad and Angelina. Besides the usual teenage problems, they have had to cope with being a foster child from a different culture than their parents'.

Maddox: Cambodian roots

Angelina encourages her adopted children to stay in touch with their native culture. The family regularly travels to the home countries of the two boys. It even has a second home in Cambodia.

Pax: Vietnamese roots

Pax is learning Vietnamese, the language he used to know before his parents adopted him as a toddler.

When Brad Pitt and Maddox had a fight

How the issues of adoption and adolescence played out for Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, no one but the Jolie-Pitt family knows. However, we do know that in 2016, while travelling home from France, an argument between Brad, Angelina, and Maddox got out of hand.

A turning point for the Jolie-Pitt family

Maddox reportedly stood up for his mom as the family had an intense altercation on their private jet in 2016. His father had reportedly drank too much and hit his son when he came between him and his wife.

Brangelina: split up

This incident was the beginning of the end for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's marriage.

Angelina and Brad: custody of the children

Brad had to take alcohol tests and was investigated by the FBI and the Los Angeles Youth Department before he could get partial custody of the six Pitt-Jolie children.

Maddox: "not really Brad's son"

Brad loves his children very much and wants to see them often. But Maddox allegedly "doesn't really see himself as Brad's son." US Weekly reports that he is estranged from his foster father.

Lonely Christmas for Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt's eldest sons did not even go to his house for Christmas in 2018. "Maddox refused to go, and so did Pax," US Weekly reported.

Maddox: closer to his mother

Maddox has been closer to his mum than to his dad. Apart from that, he and his brother have been typical teens lately: they hang out more with people their own age than with their younger siblings.

Maddox: university in South Korea

He is now studying biochemistry at Yonsei University in Seoul. His mother is very proud, but she also shed a tear when she had to leave him at his new place in August of 2019.

Angelina Jolie: "trying not to cry"

TODAY caught her on film when she brought Maddox to Seoul. "Today's the day I drop him off," she said. "I'm trying not to cry."

Return with the family

Maddox does return to his family home on a regular basis, though. He attended the premiere of his mom's films 'Maleficent: Misstress of Evil' and 'Eternals'. In addition, he spent a long quarantine with his family during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Maddox, Pax, and the rest

By the end of the quarantine in 2020, it even appeared that the Jolie children were patching things up with the father in their lives: Brad Pitt. Despite the divorce, they have gotten somewhat closer again, InTouchWeekly reported in August 2020.

A happy family

Want to read more about the other Pitt-Jolie kids? Read their stories and see how they have changed over time in this gallery.

 

Brad and Angelina's children: see how they've grown up