Angelina Jolie may be an enormous star known for playing powerful characters ranging from Lara Croft to Maleficent, but several decades ago, she was just a little kid with divorced parents. Jolie’s dad Jon Voight and mom Marcheline Bertrand were married from 1971 to 1980, and the end of their marriage is something the actress has thought about a lot.
When Jolie was given the Maltin Modern Master Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Feb. 5, 2025, she shared her family story. In particular, she talked about when Bertrand, who passed away in 2007, watched Voight bring “the other woman” Stacey Pickren to the 1979 Academy Awards.
According to People, Jolie said, “She was in her twenties, because she had me when she was very young. She was divorced to a very famous man and she was home with her babies in an apartment watching him win an Oscar with the other woman.” In a 2020 piece for The New York Times, Jolie wrote about how hard it was for her mom when Voight was unfaithful.
Jolie explained that since then, she has remembered the difficult emotions that her mother must have been dealing with. When Jolie took home the 2000 Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted, it was a huge deal for them both. It also brought up the complex feelings of knowing that when her mom was raising two little kids, she had to see Voight at this important awards ceremony with someone else, which feels cruel and unfair. The actress said of her big victory, “To have that moment, to get off that stage and call her and say, ‘It’s yours’ — and I gave it to her — one of the best moments of my life.”
Jolie discusses her late mother with a lot of love and respect. In a 2011 interview with The Sun, she said Bertrand would always treat her as a “friend,” and she loved that. While parenting is wonderful, people sometimes hope to break the cycle of how they were brought up. However, Jolie and Bertrand got along great. Jolie said, “When we talked, I felt she wanted to hear what I had to say. She enjoyed me and I feel I’m enjoying my kids.” The actress cared about her mom so much that she got her first acting job to give her mom money. According to Buzzfeed, she said during a Q&A at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, “I needed to work to help my mom.”
Although it has been several decades since Bertrand watched Voight at the Oscars, Jolie could likely relate to her mom’s tough experience when she got divorced herself. Jolie and Brad Pitt’s super long divorce has dominated headlines and hasn’t seemed easy (to say the least). Besides sharing the brutal experience of the end of a marriage, the Mr. and Mrs. Smith star and her late mom shared a talent of acting, too. Jolie explained in her NY Times piece that after her mother passed away, she saw a short film she was in, and knew her mother had the talent to go all the way. Jolie has never forgotten her mom’s choice to ignore her acting desires and look after her and her brother, James Haven.
No matter how many accolades and awards Jolie gets, she has never forgotten her mom’s journey. Although it’s awful to hear about what her mom experienced, it’s heartwarming to see how close Jolie still feels to her late mom.
Published: Feb 7, 2025 10:05 am