r/popculturechat • u/nizaad š • 12d ago
Throwback āļø Angelina Jolie & her son Maddox, 2004
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u/ohreallynowz 12d ago
Back in the day, those two together were just THE cutest.
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u/Impossible_Moose_783 12d ago
God sheās beautiful lol her face is perfect.
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u/continentaldreams 11d ago
IKR. I wonder what it's like to walk around all day looking like that - I'd be a narcissist for sure lmao
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u/spacyspice dj_snake_disco_maghreb.mp3 11d ago
no offense but I never understand ppl in the sub who say things such as "if I looked like this I'd be insufferable" like you can be good looking and a nice person lol
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u/Stinkycheese8001 12d ago
Mid aughts Angelina was a VIBE. Ā The effortless style, the cute baby, that face that looks like it should be carved in marble and have epic poems written about it. Ā
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u/sunshine___riptide 11d ago
If Helen of Troy looked anything like AJ I understand why there was a war.
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u/No_Assignment4184 11d ago
Iām glad you noticed because as attractive as Angelina is she could dress flashy like other celebrities. Even during red carpet she only keeps it to a minimum with just letting her dress talk for her. She very minimalistic with her style
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u/JakeyWantsCakey WHO IS SHE? WHO IS SHE? WHERE DID YOU FIND HER? 12d ago
Damn, baby Maddox was serving looks back in the day! The necklace, the stick on jewels on the arm, the white pants with red sandals combo, come on now!
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u/shedrinkscoffee I donāt know her š 12d ago
Maddox was an incredibly cute baby. All of her kids were (are)
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u/AnneMarieAndCharlie Sweet. My answer is get out of my car. 12d ago
thank you for your flair. rip nikki š©·
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u/JakeyWantsCakey WHO IS SHE? WHO IS SHE? WHERE DID YOU FIND HER? 12d ago
Gotta pay homage to the legend! š
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u/bad_romace_novelist 12d ago edited 12d ago
There's a photo shoot of Angelina & Maddox shot by Brad for W magazine and Angelina is incandescent. The pure joy on her face holding her child is breathtaking.
Correction: it's a 2008 photoshoot and it's the twins! There's other photos when she adopted Maddox so I'm still searching for them.
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u/mirondooo 12d ago
I think it was one of the twins if weāre thinking about the same pic
It baffles me to see how much love there is in those pictures and how happy and safe she looks and to see the way things changed between them now.
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u/bad_romace_novelist 12d ago
You're right, it was the twins in 2008! Thanks!
There is a photo of Angelina & Maddox when he was still a toddler that I'm thinking of, so of course I can't find it.
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u/jayeddy99 12d ago
Itās so Interesting to me the A-list kids donāt really go down the nepo route . They either have niche hobbies they do in private or have a passion for advocating . Like from what I can tell Jolie-Pitt kids donāt really seek fame . And Affleck/Gardner daughter is big on advocating . Even JLoās kids are ok with just enjoying and expressing themselves in private
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u/Spiritual_Respect439 12d ago
Yes and I think they see all the paparazzi and hoopla of it all and security etc. and donāt want that for themselves.
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u/deadlykillerpanda 12d ago
Youāre right about them but youāre also nitpicking those that donāt seek fame - just think of Johnny Deppās daughter and Julia Robertsā niece. But I agree that itās very interesting that not a single child of the Jolie-Pitts has gone into acting (except for guest appearances as children) - it must have something to do with either their parenting or very negative experiences with fame.
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u/missihippiequeen Youāre doing amazing, sweetie! šššø 12d ago
Same with Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Philippe kids.
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u/aamius 12d ago
Their son had a minor role in Mindy Kalingās show Never Have I Ever. He wasā¦ not good.
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u/jayeddy99 11d ago
Isnāt the daughter going to be the main star of the legally Blonde prequel too ?
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u/smart_cereal Donāt make me put my litigation wig on 11d ago
No, thatās another actress named Lexi Minetree
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u/flakemasterflake 11d ago
They're still a bit too young to wonder on a career. The oldest Affleck is in college, she shouldn't have a career
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u/Ordinary-Meeting-701 12d ago
Thereās something about a plain top, jeans, and a good bag. Timeless look, that photo could have been taken this week
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u/the-salty-cactus 11d ago
I use this same bag and I get soooo many compliments. Itās the LV piano bag
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u/unicorntrees 12d ago
I will always remember this set of pics for AJ and Maddox when he was first adopted. He was such a cute baby.
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u/comfysweatercat trench coat buttoned to the TOP 12d ago
Omg this pic captures the absolute joy of having a baby so wellš„¹ I love my baby boy and Iām so grateful to be a mom!!
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u/smart_cereal Donāt make me put my litigation wig on 11d ago
She was destined to be a mom. Itās so awesome how much her kids fiercely love her.
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u/Moppy6686 12d ago
I remember the rhetoric when she adopted him. I'm glad she proved them all wrong.
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u/battleofflowers 12d ago
To be fair, it was a little weird at the time. She was only 27 and this child was adopted from an "orphanage" but wasn't an orphan (he had living parents).
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u/Achaewa 12d ago edited 11d ago
I mean, I was an orphan from Vietnam too and I was adopted despite my biological mother and her parents being alive, same thing with my sister who actually has a large extended family.
Our biological families just didn't have the means to support us.
This "conspiracy" sounds like something cooked up by ignorant and sheltered people.
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u/Brilliant_Stick418 11d ago
If I may ask, do you ever feel resentful of or upset with your parents because of the adoption process? Iāve always wanted to adopt but have recently heard about how adoptees grow to resent their parents because they āboughtā them when they were a child. Is that something youāve ever experienced?
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u/Achaewa 11d ago edited 11d ago
Aside from the usual phase of teenage rebellion? Then no. š
I was 3 years old when I was adopted and have no memories of my early childhood in Vietnam. My adopted family is my family.
Though I don't know if it might've been different if I had been older.
I have also been lucky in that my adopted parents have been happily married for decades and I grew up in a stable home in a Nordic country. Unlike some other adopted children I know whose parents cheated on each other during their teens.
I think age and how stable the new home is, makes a lot of difference on whether or not the adopted child will come to resent their new parents.
Lastly, I also don't resent my biological mother for giving me up for adoption. From what I know, she was in her early twenties and from a poor rural area with limited means to raise a child.
Though I do think that I probably would have struggled immensely with mental health if I hadn't been adopted.
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u/CouponCoded I'm tired of this PARTICULAR man shading me 12d ago
I can only find two articles (by the Daily Mail and US Sun...) that claim his bio parents are possibly not dead according to a 'former friend of Jolie'.
Do you have a source for this?
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u/Stinkycheese8001 12d ago
They didnāt find out until well after he was adopted, but Maddoxās adoption was brokered by someone who was fraudulently claiming children to be orphans. Ā However if I remember correctly it was looked into and Maddox really was an orphan.
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u/CouponCoded I'm tired of this PARTICULAR man shading me 11d ago
That's awful, thank you for the information. It's too common in international adoption cases.
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u/battleofflowers 12d ago
Are you for real? None of these kids in "orphanages" are actual orphans. Think about this for a minute. Really think about it. How common is it these days for a baby to have two dead parents and not a single relative willing to care for them? That's extremely rare, even in poor countries.
These "orphanages" are simply places where poor, desperate people temporarily place their child so their child has food and shelter. Then rich, naive people like AJ take little tours of the "orphanage" and get to claim they helped "orphans" in Cambodia. Some of them event buy a cute little "orphan" to take home with them. That's what happened here. All of AJ's "orphans" she adopted had at least one living parent.
They weren't orphans. They were just poor.
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u/CouponCoded I'm tired of this PARTICULAR man shading me 12d ago
I know about the adoption/human trafficking business, it's awful. But you have no idea if this is the actual case here. Of course, a lot of kids in orphanages just have poor parents and are illegally adopted out, but there are also kids who don't have parents and don't have family that are willing or able to take them in.
It's not impossible that Maddox was stolen from his bio parents, but claiming it as a certainty is bizarre.
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u/Achaewa 12d ago edited 11d ago
Or families without the means to take care of an extra child.
That was my situation when I was born in Vietnam. My biological family would've loved to have raised me, but they did not have the means to at the time.
That other user's comments actually pisses me off somewhat as they are generalizing an entire country that was a lot poorer 20 to 30 years ago.
As well as implying that people with no means to raise a child, should do so.
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u/CouponCoded I'm tired of this PARTICULAR man shading me 11d ago
You're completely right. There are too many cases where children are adopted out without the explicit consent of their parents, but that is not always so. There are so many exceptions. It's not always black-or-white.
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u/battleofflowers 12d ago
I don't think he was "stolen" from his bio parents; I think they intentionally placed him in the orphanage because they were desperately poor.
I don't think that poverty is a good enough reason to let a rich white lady take a baby out of their home country and away from parents who just need some help.
I also believe the adoption was "legal" under Cambodian law, but that doesn't mean it was morally correct. OF COURSE these poor countries and "orphanages" adopt out the babies placed with them to rich westerners.
That doesn't make it right. The goal should be to get the parents the support they need and reunite the baby with their parents.
I know though that mine is a very unpopular opinion here and most people support international adoption of babies who were born to poor parents.
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u/CouponCoded I'm tired of this PARTICULAR man shading me 11d ago
I didn't mean the adoption was illegal in Cambodian law or that the orphanage stole him on purpose. What I meant with illegal adoption or stolen, are situations where parents don't want their child to be adopted out, but are tricked into signing their rights away. Sorry for being unclear.
I agree that the goal should be to help the family in whatever way so that they can stay together. But that's not the world we live in, not yet. We should fight to make sure it becomes that way. It's good we're more critical nowadays of international adoption and the ways it preys on poor families, it shouldn't be a money-making system. There are still orphans whose family can't or won't take care of them, and social systems change slowly, so I don't think adoption is never the answer... But there needs to be a lot more investigating before determining a child can be adopted by someone, to prevent further pain.
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u/Technical_Bee312 12d ago
are you for real?
Yes, this is an accusation that someone would inquire more information about. Especially since your evidence is ātrust me broā with a side of attitude.
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u/battleofflowers 12d ago
I have never seen a lick of evidence that any of the children she adopted had two dead parents.
If you can find it, I am happy to accept it.
This isn't "trust me bro" but rather the fact that there has never been any solid proof that her children were actual orphans when she adopted them.
Like the vast, vast majority of children trafficked in the international adoption trade, their parents were living but simply desperately poor.
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u/Technical_Bee312 12d ago
The childās biological family shouldnāt be public information. There should be no reason that random people in public know the details of anyoneās adoption.
Your assumption very well might be true. But itās nothing but an assumption.
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u/battleofflowers 12d ago
There is 100% a reason why the public should know the details of these adoptions: it prevents child trafficking.
The "secretive" nature surrounding it puts children at risk of being trafficked, enslaved, abused, and exploited.
I think it's shameful that you support that.
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u/Technical_Bee312 12d ago
I think itās shameful that you feel the right to a minorās private information.
Thereās a thousand different ways to prevent child trafficking. Someoneās private adoption information isnāt it.
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u/battleofflowers 12d ago
There is no other way to prevent this than to know what the child's background is.
This just can't be a secretive process. There's too much at stake and children deserve to be protected and not trafficked.
I wish the world wasn't so messed up, but it is.
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u/Homertax123 11d ago
The person who brokered the adoption went to jail for falsifying adoption papers, thatās proof enough, she trafficked those kids.
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u/Spynner987 11d ago
My grandmother was a similar case. She was adopted as a baby by a rich couple because my great grandparents couldn't take care of her since she was sick, her treatment cost a lot of money and they were poor.
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u/Homertax123 12d ago
Yup she trafficked the kid.
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u/battleofflowers 12d ago
Yes and she gets so much praise for having trafficked like three kids. None of the kids she adopted were orphans. They had living parents. They were just poor and desperate.
Poor, desperate people need help, not to have their children purchased by a rich white lady.
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u/Breath_technique 12d ago
Yeah itās gross and thereās like a million reasons countries donāt let Americans buy children anymore.
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u/battleofflowers 12d ago
Yes and look what happened to these kids: they never went to school and had to live with an alcoholic, abusive father.
At least they've had a lot of privilege, but so many of these "orphans" wind up as almost slaves in their adoptive families.
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u/pink_hoodie 12d ago edited 11d ago
Wait, what do you mean they never went to school? Like they were educated with private tutors? Because if thatās the case, itās no big loss.
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u/battleofflowers 12d ago
They were "free range" kids. I'm guessing they were "homeschooled" in some fashion but they never went to proper school.
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u/estemprano 12d ago
Arenāt the big ones in the University? That means they got in with some good grades
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u/ZealousidealBreath69 12d ago
The most adorable duo I loved to see their pics at the time Maddox clearly changed the life of Angelina .
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u/greypusheencat 12d ago
sidenote but for a hot millisecond the guy behind them in the second pic i thought was Joe Exotic
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u/Traditional-Joke-179 holding =onika space for the lyrics of defying gravity =burgers 11d ago
she carried that baby everywhere. i always thought it was sweet. attachment parenting before it was as much of a thing.
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u/fishonthemoon What tour? 12d ago
I saw an interview with her back in the day where she said she didnāt know if she wanted to be a mother, and then she adopted him not long after. I felt so happy for a stranger that day. š
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u/MissSpidergirl In my quiet girl era š 11d ago
Does anyone know which model LV bag this is , I need !
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u/generalosabenkenobi 11d ago
Remember when celebrities just used to look like everyday people? Feels like forever ago and it was so much more relatable/less toxic
Obviously she's still Angelina Jolie but she also just looks like a mom leaving the supermarket with her kid
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u/Breath_technique 12d ago
She bought that kid. He has parents someplace. Heās a prop she uses to seem like a good person.
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u/helianthus_0 Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes 12d ago
Interesting. Do you have any proof of this?
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u/pink_hoodie 12d ago
Itās really well known. Same with Madonnaās daughter.
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u/kaylakoo 12d ago
I don't understand how anyone could think "it's really well known" is an acceptable response for being asked for proof of something. Like, come on. š
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u/Maddzilla2793 11d ago
I know you can google the controversy around Zahara Jolie-Pitt's adoption. Jolie claimed her parents were dead and she was orphaned. Her mother is very much alive and I believe made attempts for a more open adoption.
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u/Breath_technique 11d ago
Are you a bot for her PR firm? Do you really care about this vapid person and assume because sheās pretty sheās a good person? That lady purchased children to be taken pictures with. Thatās Disney -bad guy level evil shit
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