Angelina Jolie Pitt -- hugely successful actress, director, producer and mother of six -- says she never wanted to be a mom.
The Oscar winner disclosed that detail during a recent interview, explaining that prior to adopting her first child -- son Maddox -- from a Cambodian orphanage in 2002, she never had a maternal hankering.
“It’s strange, I never wanted to have a baby,” the 40-year-old told the Associated Press. “I never wanted to be pregnant. I never babysat. I never thought of myself as a mother.”
Angelina Jolie cradles her son Maddox alongside actor Robert De Niro at a Sept. 10, 2004, screening of “Shark Tale” at the Venice Film Festival.
(Luigi Costantini / Associated Press)
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Growing up in L.A., the daughter of actors Jon Voight and the late Marcheline Bertrand felt “a real emptiness,” she said.
She said her feelings changed after filming “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” in Cambodia in 2000. While there, the actress educated herself about the war-ravaged country and its people.
“I realized there was so much about history that I had not been taught in school, and so much about life that I needed to understand, and I was very humbled by it,” Jolie said.
“That trip triggered my realization of how little I knew and the beginning of my search for that knowledge.”
After that, she contacted the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, then joined the organization in 2001 as a goodwill ambassador. Her parenting epiphany came while she was playing with kids at a local school on a later trip.
“It was suddenly very clear to me that my son was in the country, somewhere,” she said.
She has since applied her humanitarian reach to other countries too, and along the way has adopted daughter Zahara, now 11, from Ethiopia, and son Pax, now 12, from Vietnam with then-partner Brad Pitt. The couple went on to have three biological children -- daughter Shiloh, 9, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 7 — before marrying in August 2014. In 2012, the “By the Sea” director and star became a U.N. special envoy.
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Angelina Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt pose on the red carpet for the opening night premiere of their film “By the Sea” in Hollywood in November 2015.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive at the AFI Awards luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel on Jan. 9, 2015, in Los Angeles. Jolie’s “Unbroken” was named one of 11 movies of the year.
(Jordan Strauss / Invision )
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Angelina Jolie, left, director of “Unbroken,” poses with Miyavi, second from left, Melody Ishihara and Brad Pitt at the film’s world premiere, in Sydney, Australia, on Nov. 17, 2014.
(Glenn Nicholls / Associated Press)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were married Saturday in France, reports say. The couple, seen here at the premiere of “The Tree Of Life” at the Cannes Film Festival in May, had been engaged since 2012. (Andreas Rentz / Getty Images)
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U.N. envoy Angelina Jolie and her fiance, Brad Pitt, attend the fourth day of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in London on June 13. (Carl Court / AFP / Getty Images)
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The couple attend a global summit to end sexual violence along with representatives from 100 countries’ governments, more than 900 experts, faith leaders and representatives from international organizations around the world. (Lefteris Pitarakis / Associated Press)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt attend the world premiere of Disney’s “Maleficent” at the El Capitan Theatre on May 28, 2014, in Hollywood. (Jason Merritt / Getty Images)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt attend the world premiere of Disney’s “Maleficent” at the El Capitan Theatre on May 28, 2014, in Hollywood. (Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attend the New York premiere of “The Normal Heart” at Ziegfeld Theater on May 12, 2014, in New York City. (Ben Gabbe / Getty Images)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive for a special “Maleficent” costume display at Kensington Palace in London on May 8, 2014. (Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA )
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at a special “Maleficent” costume display at Kensington Palace in London on May 8, 2014. (Joel Ryan / Invision / AP)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive at the Governor’s Ball at the 86th Academy Awards on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive at the 86th Academy Awards on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Jolie congratulates Pitt when “12 Years A Slave,” which he produced and starred in, won the Academy Award for best picture. (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)
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Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Brian Grazer at the 84th Annual Academy Awards show at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 26, 2012. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the 84th Annual Academy Awards show at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Los Angeles, CA on Feb. 26, 2012. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards show at The Beverly Hilton on Jan. 15, 2012. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt during coverage of the 69th Golden Globe Awards show at The Beverly Hilton on Jan. 15, 2012. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards show at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Jan. 29, 2012. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the 68th Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 16, 2011 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan.16, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hill. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Accompanied by their six children, Brad Pitt and Angellina Jolie appear before photographers upon their arrival at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Nov. 8, 2011. (Toru Yamanaka / AFP / Getty Images)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on the red carpet of the 81st Academy Awards on Feb. 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive at the 66th Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Jan. 11, 2009. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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A heavily pregnant Angelina Jolie arrives at the premiere of her animated film “Kung Fu Panda” during the 61st International film festival in Cannes, southern France. (Matt Sayles / Associated Press)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive for the Critics’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles, Calif. on Jan. 7, 2008. (Paul Buck / EPA)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive for the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 27, 2008. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive at the premiere of “Beowulf” in Los Angeles on Nov. 5, 2007. (Chris Pizzello / Associated Press)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt attend the “The Assassination of Jesse James” premiere at 64th Annual Venice Film Festival on Sept. 2, 2007. (MJ Kim / Getty Images)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive for the New York premiere of “The Assassination of Jesse James” on Sept. 18, 2007. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP / Getty Images)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive for the premiere of Pitt’s film “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” during the 33rd Deauville American Film Festival on Sept. 3, 2007 in Deauville , France. (Francois Durand / Getty Images)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive at the New York premiere of “A Mighty Heart” on June, 13, 2007. (Stuart Ramson / Associated Press)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive at the Festival Palace for a gala screening of the film “A Mighty Heart” running out of competition at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, on May 21, 2007. (Daniel Deme / EPA)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive for the 64th Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 15, 2007 in Beverly Hills. (Beatrice de Gea / Los Angeles Times)
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive at the world premiere of “The Good Shepherd” on Dec. 11, 2006, in New York. (Jeff Christensen / Associated Press)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie visit the Immaculate Conception School in Port au Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 13, 2006. (Brennan Linsley / Associated Press)
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Brad Pitt, producer Arnon Milchan and Angelina Jolie arrive at the premiere of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” at the Mann Village Theater on June 7, 2005, in Westwood, Calif. (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)
The “Unbroken” director is now back in Maddox’s home country to co-direct “First They Killed My Father,” a Netflix film adaptation of Loung Ung’s memoir chronicling the Khmer Rouge’s 1970s holocaust from the perspective of a young boy.
Maddox, who was only 7 months old when he was adopted and is now 14, is helping with research and preparation for the film.
Nardine Saad covers breaking entertainment news, trending culture topics, celebrities and their kin for the Fast Break Desk at the Los Angeles Times. She joined The Times in 2010 as a MetPro trainee and has reported from homicide scenes, flooded canyons, red carpet premieres and award shows.
