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James Haven has opened up on his relationship with sister Angelina Jolie in a new, rare interview.
If, like me, you’d been scrolling through Instagram the last few days and stumbled across a resurfaced picture of Angelina Jolie and her brother kissing and thought, ‘What?!’
And then taken to google to query, ‘Angelina Jolie kissing brother,’ to realise you’re very late to the party, then here’s some context for you.
Jolie, 48 and Haven, 52, are the two children of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand.
While Haven has kept relatively out of the spotlight compared to his parents and sister, he shared a moment – which continuously resurfaces and goes viral – with Jolie on the Oscars red carpet in 2000.
Jolie had just won the Academy Award for Girl, Interrupted and the pair then shared a smooch.
They faced backlash for the kiss, and defended themselves explaining they’d just been to visit their mother in hospital – Bertrand diagnosed with ovarian and breast cancer and passing away in 2007 – and it was simply show of close sibling affection.
Haven has since spoken out in a rare interview about what his relationship with Jolie is like now.
Sitting down with 90WHO10 in an episode of the podcast released 31 December, 2023, Haven was asked about what it’s been like to support Jolie through her separation from Brad Pitt in 2016.
Jolie filed for divorce from the fellow Mr and Mrs Smith actor, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’ and the pair have been navigating a co-parenting relationship ever since.
Haven reflects: “I mean I think it’s all natural and that’s where it started with the protection of her and then you know in the direct of her children and my nieces and nephews.
“[…] And they’re those massively formative years, they’re becoming young adults, early 20s, that’s so crazy thinking that.
“I think it’s just very natural. I just want to be there anytime, very much like my mom. Anytime I’m blessed to be in their presence, I want to be in their presence.”
Haven explains a quality he takes from his mom, which is turning his phone off when he’s in the presence of people, so they’re the focus – something he does with his sister and her children.
“I want to be there for them or for her and whatever she’s going through,” he continues. “And we have very mutual interests, especially if it focuses on how to help kids.”
Given there being ‘a classic bond between siblings’ who’ve shared certain traumas in their upbringings, Haven adds: “If you’re working with a sibling […] without even saying it you’re saying we want to do this because we kind of working through this and we don’t want this to happen to somebody else.
“[…] I know there’s going to be many things in the future we’ll probably be working on which we’ve never done publicly together.