Tears, media frenzy surround actress during first moments with her new son, Pax
Angelina Jolie told reporters this week that she regrets the media frenzy surrounding her latest adoption.
The actress adopted a son, Pax Thien Jolie, from Vietnam this week. She also vowed to focus on her burgeoning family and to be a stay-at-home mom while Pax gets his bearings.
"I will stay at home to help Pax adjust to his new life," Jolie told Friday's Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper, according to a translation from the Associated Press. "I have four children and caring for them is the most important thing for me at the moment. I am very proud and happy to be their mother."
Jolie also told the paper she worries that, “Photographs and press coverage will make him upset. I’m very worried about that. I would like to say I’m sorry for bringing this into Pax’s life."
Since arriving in Vietnam on Wednesday, Jolie, 31, and her son, Maddox, 5, have been followed by a horde of photographers and reporters.
Jolie and her new son went through an emotional introduction at Thursday's formal welcoming ceremony, during which the 3-year-old Vietnamese boy, whose given name is Pham Quang, started crying when Jolie knelt down to talk to him.
A caretaker at the orphanage said Pax was caught off guard because staff hadn’t told him he’d been adopted.
"We did not say anything to him, afraid we might put pressure on him and more frightened," the caretaker said. "We just told him that we are taking him out. You are going to play outside – play with a mother and father."
Orphanage staff packed a small box for Pax with two sets of clothes along with his favorite toys. They also taught him a few phrases of English: "How are you?" and "What's your name?"
The adoption has been widely questioned to which Jolie responds, "Everyone would agree that children need to have a family. I have the ability to help children fulfill that desire. Why should I say no?"
Pax, is the fourth child for Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt. Maddox was adopted from Cambodia, Zahara, 2, was adopted from Ethiopia, and 10-month-old Shiloh, was born to the couple last year.
