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

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.

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

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.

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

Then came the twins Knox and Vivienne in 2008.

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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'.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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