Angelina isn't exactly Mother Teresa, but she is one heck of a mother.
She's juggling raising her six children, her high-profile acting career, and her philanthropic career with skill, but she didn't get her super mom skills from thin air. She got them from her own mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand.
Out of all the people in Jolie's personal life, we tend to hear more about Jolie's rocky relationship with her veteran actor father, Jon Voight (Jolie dropped Voight and took her middle name in 2002), her even stranger relationship with her brother James (who she once gave a very scandalous kiss on the lips on live television), and her high-profile relationships with her ex-husbands, Jonny Lee Miller, Billy Bob Thornton (remember that vile of blood?), and Brad Pitt.
In fact, she's experiencing a little of what her mother went through raising her and her brother as kids right now as a single mother. Let's just hope the Jolie-Pitt kids have somewhat of a better relationship with their father, however. We know they love their mother, that's for sure. They shower her with love every Mother's Day, while Jolie tends to look back at all that her mother did for her.
Her Mother Gave Up Her Career To Raise Jolie And Her Brother
Bertrand was an aspiring actress when she married Voight, but her career was put on hold when they started a family.
They had a miscarriage in 1972, and Voight recently told Page Six that it was a "great, great loss" to the couple. "It was a great trauma for my wife," Voight said. "She was very disturbed by that. There has been a sadness for the rest of my life, so it’s a serious thing."
Thankfully they had James in 1973 and Jolie in 1975. But unfortunately, their marriage did not survive. They separated in 1976, and Bertrand filed for divorce in 1978, citing adultery after Voight cheated on her. He left her to raise their children and put her own acting career on the back burner, but he did provide for his children. That wasn't enough for Jolie, though.
When Jolie started acting, she realized she didn't want to be Voight, not just because she wanted her own career outside her father's shadow but because "I didn't feel that close to my father. I felt more of my mother's daughter when I was a child. So that was one part of it."
Eventually, Bertrand got back to what she loved; acting. She starred in the 1983 comedy The Man Who Loved Women, and that same year she founded Woods Road Productions. Later on, she also founded the All Tribes Foundation, which helps preserve Native American culture, with her partner John Trudell. Guess that's where Jolie got her love for philanthropy.
But she was still one of Jolie's idols. "My mother was a full-time mother. She didn't have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences. Everything was for her children," stated Jolie to Daily Mail. Jolie called her mother "Marshmallow" because she was "the softest, most gentlewoman."
"She was really sweet and was never angry - she couldn't swear to save her life. But when it came to her kids, she was really fierce, and so this is very much her, her story. She was the woman I related to, who had that elegance and strength for knowing what was right," continued Jolie.
Her Mother Influenced Her As A Person And A Mother
Sadly, Bertrand died in 2007 after a long battle with ovarian cancer. In the letter Jolie penned about her mother to the New York Times, she said her mother's death changed her. "Losing a mother’s love and warm, soft embrace is like having someone rip away a protective blanket."
To honor Bertrand, though, she's tried to be as good a mother, even though she knew she never could compare. "My mom always made it clear that I was her friend—and that is a lesson on how to bring up my own children," Jolie told The Sun in 2011. "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. If anybody ever tells me that I am a mother to them like my mom was to me, it will be a great compliment."
She missed her mother the most during her divorce from Pitt. Jolie told Elle France, "I know how much she would have contributed to [my kids'] lives, and I am sad they will miss out on that. I would give anything for her to be with me at this time. I've needed her. I talk to her often in my mind and try to think what she might say and how she might guide me."
"There are times when I want to talk to my mother about something the children do, and then I realize she is not there. She gave me a great sense of love. I might have been nutty in my youth, but I was always loving," Jolie continued to Daily Mail.
Jolie explained that Bertrand did meet Jolie's first son Maddox and was fantastic. "As soon as Mad (Maddox) came home, I think she knew that everything was going to be all right," she said. No matter what Jolie does, she knows she'll never be as good a mother as Bertrand. Jolie got a "W" tattooed on her hand, referencing the Rolling Stones song "Winter," which Bertrand used to sing to her.