Angelina Jolie Is Proud to Call Her Six Kids 'My Close Friends,' Says They're All 'Very Different People'

The mom of six is proud of the relationships she shares with her kids and embraces their differences

Angelina Jolie couldn't be more proud of the people her six children are becoming.

The multi-hyphenate mom of six, 48, joked to WSJ. Magazine about how she doesn't "really have ... a social life" in Los Angeles but keeps close bonds with her kids instead.

Jolie — who is mom to twins Knox and Vivienne, 15, daughters Shiloh, 17, and Zahara, 18, as well as sons Pax, 20, and Maddox, 22, with ex-husband Brad Pitt — says she puts a lot of trust in her kids.

"They are the closest people to me and my life, and they’re my close friends," she tells the outlet. "We’re seven very different people, which is our strength."

Jolie also talks about how she's afforded her children the ability to experience life without the threat of paparazzi that surrounded them as younger children. In some cases, she simply allows them to go places and do things and stays back herself.

"You kind of step out when there’s times you would have liked to have been there,” she explains.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Related: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's 6 Kids: Everything to Know

In September, the devoted mom told Vogue that her children "saved" her.

“I was 26 when I became a mother,” she said. “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."

“They’re better than me, because you want your children to be," Jolie continued. "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.”

In a 2021 interview with PEOPLE, Jolie opened up about how her children’s “kindness” has “been very healing to me.”

"They're pretty great people, and because there's so many of them, I think they've had a very significant effect on each other,” she said. “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."

The mom of six also explained how her priority is to "be there to support and develop all the different aspects of who they are."

"I have six very individual human beings in my home,” she told PEOPLE. “I am so excited about all the different stages and feelings and curiosities that they go through. Why wouldn't you be? 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."

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.