NEED TO KNOW
- A source tells PEOPLE Angelina Jolie “appreciates getting older”; her own mother passed at 56 from cancer
- The Maria actress will turn 50 on June 4
- Jolie recently shared that acting had become “harder” after her mom’s death
Angelina Jolie has a positive outlook as she nears turning 50.
On June 4, the Maria actress, 49, will hit the special birthday milestone and, according to a source, it’s all the more meaningful due to her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died in 2007 at the age of 56 after a battle with ovarian cancer.
“[Jolie] appreciates getting older because she lost her mom young,” a source exclusively tells PEOPLE. “Her focus is returning to her foundation work as her family needs her less.”
Jolie shares six children — Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 19, Knox, 16, and Vivienne, also 16 — with her ex-husband Brad Pitt.
The actress founded the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation in 2003, which is named for her Cambodian-born son and provides support to communities living in extreme poverty in Cambodia.
Jolie recently stunned at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival while at the Trophée Chopard dinner. It marked the Oscar winner’s return to the red carpet following her streak of appearances during the 2025 awards season for her role in Pablo Larraín’s biopic Maria, in which she brought legendary opera singer Maria Callas to life.
While discussing the film with W magazine in January, Jolie spoke candidly about how her late mother encouraged her to become an actress — and how her death made furthering her career even harder.
“I did it in the beginning because … it was my mother’s dream,” she said, recounting how Bertrand originally pursued acting, trying out for roles in both theater in Chicago and film and TV in Los Angeles.
“But by the time my mom was 25, she was divorced with two kids and she decided she would focus her life solely on motherhood,” Jolie continued, referring to Bertrand’s split from her father, actor Jon Voight. The couple also shared a son, Jolie’s brother James Haven.
“She loved being a stay-at-home mom, but she really wanted me to be an actress so I don’t remember making the choice to be an actress. I remembered it made my mom happy,” Jolie added, also noting acting helped her mother pay the bills during her childhood, as Bertrand served as her manager.
“When my mom passed, I think it was harder for me to be an actress for a while,” the star told W. “I realized how much it was for her.”
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Last December, while accepting the Performer Tribute at the Gotham Awards, Jolie reflected on how her mother’s dedication to theater and literature also shaped her career, inspiring both her and Haven, 51.
“I grew up with a mother who kept books inside the oven because there were more books in our house than shelves in the apartment we had,” Jolie told the audience.
“And it was how she solved the problem, while still making sure we were fed,” the actress added. “But it was her priority. She took me to theater. She told me about meeting Tennessee Williams and she introduced me to the Lee Strasberg Institute, where I would later study.”
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