Life

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's six children are learning seven languages

Maeve Connoly

Maeve Connolly

Maeve is the deputy digital editor at The Irish News. She has worked for the company since 2000.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's children are learning seven languages between them
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's children are learning seven languages between them Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's children are learning seven languages between them

JUST when you were feeling proud that your child was picking up words and phrases from Dora The Explorer the Jolie Pitt children have gone and ruined it for everyone.

Sleb Safari doesn’t blame the children. It blames the parents.

Those blasted Jolie Pitts with their all-round gorgeousness and likeability and philanthropy and advocacy are to blame for a lot of things.

Their children aren’t bothering with Dora the Explorer-standard Spanish; no siree, they’re mastering Arabic and Russian. For fun.

Angelina Jolie was a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour recently. Sleb Safari had to pull out at the last minute and was grateful to Angie for stepping in. One can but hope the listeners didn’t turn off in droves when they found out.

The ever gracious Angelina spoke about her work, both in film and with the UN, her home life with Brad Pitt (would you ever leave the house if you were married to Brad Pitt?) and their six children.

As chance would have it, they are learning seven languages between the six of them.

Please, as if you need beauty, wealth and an education. What are Angie and Brad teaching these children? One out of the three is quite enough in this day and age.

Angelina said her children, who range from 14 to seven-year-old twins, chose the language they wanted to study.

“All the kids are learning different languages,” she said.

“I asked them what languages they wanted to learn and Shi is learning Khmer, which is the Cambodian language, Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Z is speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic, and Knox is learning sign language.”

How handy. Angelina and Brad need never download another foreign language app again when they’re surrounded by this many linguists.

Angelina added: “So it just means you don’t know who your children are until they show you who they are and they are just becoming whoever they want to be.”

She’s lucky they all wanted to learn. Sleb Safari’s mum had a real fight on her hands over violin lessons. It lasted right up until the day she conceded. That violin is gently gathering dust somewhere and we’re all happier because of it.

And, as it turns out, several of the Jolie Pitts are interested in music.

“None of my kids want to be actors. They actually are very interested in being musicians. I think they like the process of film from the outside. Mad is interested in editing. We’ll see, they’re all very young. Pax loves music and deejaying,” she said.

Well yes Angelina, your eldest is 14 and your youngest are seven. We’d be worried if they didn’t want to be rock stars and footballers. Awh, doting parents, they’re the same the world over. Bless.

Three cheers for the cheerio challenge

Have you seen the Cheerio challenge online? It’s where dads try to stack as many Cheerios on their sleeping child and share a photograph of the result on social media.

Sleb Safari counted one child with eight pieces of the breakfast cereal stacked on a baby’s nose. That is a real achievement.

Sleb Safari would like to thank these dads for the lols.

Justin Bieber takes a tumble

JUSTIN Bieber fell through a trapdoor on stage during a concert in Canada last week. Sleb Safari is sure he got a terrible shock and probably more than his pride was hurt but it can’t help but feel that somewhere, somewhere in an animal rescue centre in Germany, a little Capuchin monkey called Mally is sniggering and punching the air.

Beth Tweddle has scars courtesy of The Jump

THIS week’s high five goes to Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle who has spoken candidly about seeing a psychologist to help her deal with the accident she had during Channel 4’s winter sports TV show The Jump.

Beth broke her back when she fell on a slope earlier this year and required emergency surgery.

She appeared on The One Show and said she found it difficult to talk about the accident.

“It’s hard to talk about about. I’m using a psychologist.

“I didn’t panic at the time. It was when I flew back to the UK. I realised the journey I’d have to go on – the recovery phase, rehab, surgeons, physios. People couldn’t realise how serious it was. I couldn’t even deal with it.”

High five Beth for being so honest.

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