Angelina Jolie reflects on turning 50 and appreciating age after losing her mother young

Angelina Jolie has learned to appreciate her age as she turns 50 on June 4. A source close to the actress, while speaking to People in an article published on May 30, revealed that Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand's death at 56, after battling ovarian cancer, has made her appreciate growing old.

"Jolie appreciates getting older because she lost her mother young. Her focus is returning to her foundation work as her family needs her less."

The actress is a mother to six children, all of whom she shares with ex-husband Brad Pitt. As her kids are coming out of their nest, Jolie wants to focus more on her MJP foundation, which she founded in 2003 and named after her Cambodian-born son. Jolie has been public about her relationship with her late mother and opened up about her as she accepted the Maltin Modern Master Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February 2025.

"I am absolutely nothing without her love" - says Angelina Jolie about late mother

As she accepted the Maltin Modern Master Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February 2025, Angelina Jolie paid a tribute to her mother and said,

"I am absolutely nothing without her love. I think of my mother...she had to give up her dreams of a creative life but she embraced that side of mine."

Her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died at 56 in 2007 after battling ovarian cancer. Bertrand was born in 1950 and raised in Chicago. After moving to Los Angeles as a teenager, she went on to pursue an acting career and met actor Jon Voight when she was 20-something.

Bertrand appeared in an episode of NBC's crime drama TV show Ironside and was also cast in the films Lookin' to Get Out and The Man Who Loved Women.

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The pair began dating and got married in 1971 and together welcomed Jolie and her brother, James Haven. After five years of marriage, Bertrand and Voight finalized their divorce, making her a single mother to Angelina Jolie and her brother.

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1999 and later with breast cancer. While speaking to Vanity Fair in 2008, Jolie detailed how her mother's death impacted her opinions on motherhood. In an earlier NY Times op-ed piece, Jolie revealed that her parents separated because of her father's infidelity and that her mother was deeply affected by the incident.

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