Angelina Jolie has been a single parent since splitting from husband Brad Pitt in 2016 but it has not been the easiest road for the Hollywood veteran.
On Wednesday The Eternals actress told People magazine that she is ‘not a perfect parent’ to her six kids adding she is very ‘tough’ on herself when it comes to being a matriarch.
‘Every day I feel like I’m more aware of everything I DON’T do right’ the beauty shared.
But she noted that the kids are patient and their ‘kindness’ has been very healing to her as she continues to fight Pitt in court over custody of five out of the six kids as Maddox is an adult.
The kids are Maddox, 20, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15, and 13-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.
Jolie said at times she says she can be ‘tough’ on herself when it comes to being a single parent.
‘I’m not a perfect parent by any means,’ she shared.
‘Every day I feel like I’m more aware of everything I don’t do right. And I’m pretty tough on myself, because I feel often, “Am I doing the right thing? Did I say the right thing?”‘
The daughter of Jon Voight then added: ‘My children have done many, many loving things. My children’s kindness has been very healing to me.’
She also noted that she has felt the need to be very ‘honest’ with the six children they raised together.
‘I’m very honest with my kids. And I’m very human with my kids,’ the Gia actress told People in the 2021 Kindness Issue as she graced the cover wearing a caramel beige sweater.
Jolie also said she finds tremendous joy is seeing them grow up.
‘I have six very individual human beings in my home. I am so excited about all the different stages and feelings and curiosities that they go through. Why wouldn’t you be?’ added the beauty who has recently been romantically linked to singer The Weeknd.
‘We’re supposed to help them figure out who they are. And you can’t figure out who they are if you don’t enthusiastically develop with them.’
And she thinks highly of her kids whom live with her in Los Feliz, California but also spend time with their father Pitt on his nearby compound.
‘They’re pretty great people,’ Jolie, 46, shared with the site adding ‘and because there’s so many of them, I think they’ve had a very significant effect on each other.
‘It’s not like I’m the head of anything. I’m very honest with my kids. And I’m very human with my kids.’
She added that she is ‘curious about all the different aspects of who they are.’
And Jolie wants to support and develop all the different aspects of who they are.’
In February Jolie said she is still working on being ‘happy.’
The Maleficent actress has admitted she ‘doesn’t know’ if she’s happy, as she said she’s been so focused on ‘healing [her] family’ following her split from Pitt that she hasn’t had time to work on her own happiness.
When asked if she’s happy, Angelina said: ‘I don’t know. The past few years have been pretty hard. I’ve been focusing on healing our family. It’s slowly coming back, like the ice melting and the blood returning to my body. But I’m not there. I’m not there yet. But I hope to be. I’m planning on it.’
Since splitting from Brad, Angelina has moved into the former estate of Cecil B DeMille, where she chose to live because the property is just ‘five minutes away’ from Brad meaning their kids could be close to both parents.
She said of her move: ‘I wanted it to be close to their dad, who is only five minutes away. I felt a little pressure moving in. Like I had snuck into where DeMille and Chaplin would hang out. I love most that there is no entertainment room, but lots of pathways and places to walk and think. I feel very fortunate we have that at this time.’
And although she may not have found true happiness just yet, the actress has said she much prefers life now that she’s older.
She told British Vogue magazine: ‘I do like being older. I feel much more comfortable in my forties than I did when I was younger. Maybe because … I don’t know … maybe because my mom didn’t live very long, so there’s something about age that feels like a victory instead of a sadness for me.’
Things are still not going as well as they could with the Pitt custody battle.
In September Pitt insisted the judge shouldn’t have been removed from his long-running custody case with Jolie.
The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor’s legal team have filed a petition with the California Supreme Court to raise an objection to the recent disqualification of private Judge John Ouderkirk from their case, which effectively voided a previous ruling that granted the 57-year-old star more time with the former couple’s five younger children.
The petition argues that removing the judge ‘effectively upended the constitutionally authorized temporary judging system in California’ and now ‘throws open the door to disqualification challenges at any point during a case, even if the party raising the motion has long been on notice about the alleged grounds for disqualification.’
The document added: ‘In so doing, the opinion is guaranteed to fuel disqualification gamesmanship and raises serious questions as to whether the temporary judging system is a viable option in California’s severely backlogged judicial system.’
Angelina’s team had sought to have the judge – who was hired in 2016 – removed because they felt he could be biased in his rulings as he had failed to disclose continuing or new cases he’d been hired by Brad’s lawyers to oversee and the three judges who oversaw a hearing on the matter last month agreed Ouderkirk’s ‘failure to make mandatory disclosures’ about the work he was doing on other cases involving the Moneyball star’s team ‘might cause an objective person, aware of all of the facts’ to doubt his impartiality.
However, in Brad’s new petition, they insisted the star had been ‘made aware of Judge Ouderkirk’s significant professional history with Pitt’s counsel from the very start’ of their custody battle but had waited for years to have him removed.
The lawyers argued: ‘After more than four years of contentious litigation, every day of which has harmed the children and their father, an important and considered custody decision will be entirely undone as a result of an administrative error that is wholly unrelated to the merits of the custody dispute itself.
‘California law requires that a party seeking disqualification of a judge file a written statement objecting to continued proceedings before the judge ‘at the earliest practicable opportunity after discovery of the facts constituting the ground for disqualification’.
‘Failure to do so constitutes waiver or forfeiture of the party’s right to seek disqualification.’
Brad’s team confirmed to People they are seeking a review in the California Supreme Court.
They said in a statement they wanted the review because: ‘The temporary judge, who had been appointed and repeatedly renewed by both sides, was improperly disqualified after providing a detailed, fact-based custodial decision, following a lengthy legal process with multiple witnesses and experts.’
Angelina’s team branded the move to have the judge reinstated ‘disturbing.’
Her lawyer, Robert A. Olsen, said: ‘The Court of Appeal unanimously refused to tolerate the ethical violations of the private judge who had heard custody matters, and correctly vacated that judge’s orders.
‘Mr. Pitt’s counsel’s petition to the California Supreme Court displays how they are clinging to this private judge who exhibited bias and refused statutorily required evidence.
‘It is disturbing that in full knowledge of unethical behaviour, and having previously failed to disclose their new and ongoing financial relationships with him, Mr. Pitt’s counsel would seek to reinstate the private judge. Ms. Jolie hopes Mr. Pitt will instead join with her in focusing on the children’s needs, voices, and healing.’
Source: dailymail.co.uk
