Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie, who has six children with ex-husband Brad Pitt, has landed in controversy over the reported ‘orphan’ status of her son Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt before she had adopted him. Jolie, 46, had earlier said that she’d gone to great lengths to verify that Maddox had no living parents before she adopted him.
Maddox is now 19-years-old. He was adopted from an orphanage in Cambodia by Angelina in 2002. Her other five children are Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15, and Vivienne and Knox, 12. Zahara, and Pax are also adopted from orphanages in Ethiopia and Vietnam respectively.
A former aid worker, who had helped Jolie with the adoption process, has now said that he cannot be ‘100% sure’ that Maddox was an orphan, reports mailonline.com. Sarath Mounh had reportedly played an important role in the adoption process. He had reportedly signed legal documents stating that he was Maddox’s real father, to help hasten the legal process.
Mounh told the website: ‘I’m not 100% sure that Maddox was an orphan even though he came from an orphanage. At least one of the parents was possibly alive at the time of his adoption. But I never asked these difficult questions.”
Mounh added: ‘When it comes to money, everything is possible. This is what I kept on hearing at the time from those around Angelina: ‘Make it happen.’
Mounh statements come at a time when a new documentary will investigate whether babies in Cambodia were stolen from their families and put up for adoption. Jolie has always maintained that Maddox was an orphan. ‘I would never rob a mother of her child. I can only imagine how dreadful that would feel,’ she had said.