Angelina Jolie was "saved" by her children.
Angelina Jolie was saved by her children
The 'Eternals' actress - who has Maddox, 22, Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 15, with ex-husband Brad Pitt - admitted her "entire life changed" when she adopted her eldest son and she believes now she would have "gone under" if she didn't have her family to keep her going.
She told America's Vogue magazine: “I was 26 when I became a mother. My entire life changed.
"Having children saved me—and taught me to be in this world differently.
"I think, recently, I would’ve gone under in a much darker way had I not wanted to live for them."
The 48-year-old actress is proud of the people her children have grown to become, particularly the roles they have taken on in their family.
She said: "They’re better than me, because you want your children to be. Of course I’m the mother, and hopefully that safe place for them and that stability.
"But I’m also the one that they laugh at—and I see them taking over so many different aspects of our family.”
Angelina herself was "quite dark" as a teenager and didn't care what other people thought of her "punk" style.
She said: “I was quite dark when I was young. I was a punk, not the popular kid—going to thrift stores, cutting things up, burning little teeny cigarette holes into things: That was me as a teenager, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Maybe that part of me wants to push back.”
The 'Maleficent' star has always encouraged her kids to find their own sense of style.
She said: “I don’t tell the kids how to dress. Even when they were little, I just put things in front of them.
“Nobody has to go anywhere if they don’t want to, and if they don’t want to dress up, they don’t have to...
“I want them to be their own people.”
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