'We're having a wonderful time'
2008-08-05 10:57
New York - Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt say their four previous children are adjusting just fine to the arrival of a twin brother and sister last month, with "cupcakes and Dora the Explorer" to help ease the transition.
Jolie and Pitt speak about their growing family, their charity work and their work-life balance in a question-and-answer in a special edition of People magazine that hit the newsstands Monday.
A 19-page, R106.4m-photo spread anchors the piece and gives a first look at the new babies interacting with the whole family.
The photos show Jolie and Pitt - each cradling a twin - sitting on a white bed with Zahara, 3, between them; Pax, 4, by Jolie's side; and Shiloh, 2, lying on top of 7-year-old Maddox, who is plopped down by Pitt.
There are close-ups of the twins, Knox and Vivienne, with their eyes closed, and photos of the older siblings gently holding the babies.
"It is chaos, but we are managing it and having a wonderful time," Jolie, 33, says in the interview, though Pitt jumps in: "(It's) still a cuckoo's nest."
Welcome mat has paid off
Jolie says they helped prepare their children for the babies' arrival by showing them an episode of Dora the Explorer that featured twins, and by celebrating the birth with cupcakes.
"So far, laying out the welcome mat has paid off," she says.
"Shiloh calls them her babies. She and Z pick out their clothes and help change and hold them. It's sweet - they are little mommies," Jolie tells the magazine.
Jolie also puts to rest speculation they conceived the twins through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
If they had been conceived through IVF, we would have been happy to discuss it," she says. "But we have been fortunate never to have had fertility problems."
The photos were shot at the Chateau Miraval in Provence, France, where the Jolie-Pitt clan have hunkered down in recent months. The twins were born on July 12 in Nice, France.
The photos of the family fetched R106.4m, a person involved in the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday, giving People and the British tabloid Hello! joint rights to publish the most expensive celebrity pictures ever sold.
The person asked not to be named because he was not authorised to release the figure.
The money - more than double the R45.6m People paid for Jennifer Lopez's twins on a March cover, according to Forbes - will go to a foundation created by Pitt and Jolie that largely focuses on helping children around the world.
- AP