Angelina Jolie Says Her Children Are 'Helping Each Other Out' at Home amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Getty Images Angelina Jolie and her children
Angelina Jolie feels "lucky" to have such a helpful family amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The One and Only Ivan star, 45, recently opened up about how her kids have been adapting to life at home during the COVID-19 crisis, telling Extra that her six children — sons Maddox, 19, Pax, 16, and Knox, 12, and daughters Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and Vivienne, 12 — have been very supportive around the house.
“They’re all together and it's a nice big bunch, so everybody's helping each other out," she said. "We're lucky."
Jolie also revealed that her eldest son Maddox — who returned to the United States from his studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea earlier this year after his semester was canceled due to the novel coronavirus — has been taking online classes.
"He had to stay back from Korea," she shared. "He's going online, and so I think he starts at 6 p.m. at night."
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Angelina Jolie with son Maddox
In April, the actress told DongA Daily, South Korea’s oldest and leading media outlet, that she "could not be happier about Mad’s choice of university."
"It is, of course, closed at the moment because of the pandemic. But he’s not transferring school, he’ll be back as soon as things settle,” she said at the time. “We are all so happy, as a family, that we will have the opportunity to get to know South Korea even better through Maddox, and with him, during his studies."
In addition to spending time with her family amid the pandemic, Jolie has stayed active with several humanitarian causes — particularly those helping children who are left vulnerable through the side-effects of the pandemic — by donating money to help with food insecurity and shedding light on kids who find themselves trapped in homes that may not be safe.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images (L-R) Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt, Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt
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“Isolating a victim from family and friends is a well-known tactic of control by abusers, meaning that the social distancing that is necessary to stop COVID-19 is one that will inadvertently fuel a direct rise in trauma and suffering for vulnerable children,” she wrote in one op-ed for Time in April, urging people to “make a point of calling family or friends, particularly where we might have concerns that someone is vulnerable.”
“It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child,” she wrote. “It will take an effort by the whole of our country to give children the protection and care they deserve."
Jolie also donated $1 million to No Kid Hungry, an organization distributing meals to children who relies on school lunches, in March.
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“As of this week, over a billion children are out of school worldwide because of closures linked to coronavirus,” she said in a statement. “Many children depend on the care and nutrition they receive during school hours, including nearly 22 million children in America who rely on food support. No Kid Hungry is making resolute efforts to reach as many of those children as possible.”
Jolie also made a donation to the UN Refugee Agency and sent support to the schools she funds in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kenya and Namibia to help ensure they can continue teaching and learning through the pandemic.
On a worldwide scale, Jolie is working with UNESCO on the establishment of a Global Education Coalition to help children access distance learning.
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