Angelina Jolie has been a fixture on the Hollywood scene for decades. Although almost everyone knows about her storied career (in films from Tomb Raider to Maleficent and Eternals), her long history of humanitarian work, and her brood of six now-young adult children who like to shop her closet, there’s still plenty more to learn about the screen icon. Below, find five things you probably (definitely?) didn’t know about Jolie.
1. She’s a Spelman mom.
Jolie’s oldest daughter, Zahara, is currently enrolled at the prestigious, historically Black Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Jolie couldn’t help posting with pride during her first visit to campus, writing on Instagram: “A very special place and an honour to have a family member as a new Spelman girl.” Go Jaguars!
2. She took a bold step for the sake of her health in 2013.
Jolie revealed in a New York Times op-ed a decade ago that she had chosen to receive a preventive double mastectomy in order to mitigate the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, which was higher for her as a carrier of the BRCA1 gene. “My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent,” Jolie wrote after the surgery.
3. She has a whopping 16 tattoos.
The fact that Jolie is a fan of body art isn’t exactly a secret, but did you know her total number of tattoos comes in at well over a dozen? Her inkings include her children’s birthplace coordinates, the subtitle to a Tennessee Williams play, and the Latin translation of the phrase: “What nourishes me destroys me.”
4. She long served as a diplomat.
In April of 2012, Jolie earned the title of Special Envoy after years of work as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She stepped down from that role after 10 years in December of 2022.
5. She’s not afraid to get up close and personal with insects.
In 2017, Jolie was filmed frying up the Cambodian delicacies of cricket, scorpion, and tarantula for her children. “Shiloh loves a tarantula, loves a bug,” Jolie revealed on Good Morning America. “They can eat a bag of crickets like a bag of chips.”
