The actress has been directing a movie, promoting her new Disney blockbuster, travelling the world for humanitarian causes and caring for her six growing kids.
This time last year Angelina Jolie was recovering from a double mastectomy and preparing for another op to reconstruct her breasts.
After discovering she had an 87% risk of developing the cancer that killed her mother, the beautiful Hollywood actress decided to cut her own risk with preventative surgery.
But three months of tests and surgery couldn’t stop her leading her normal” life – directing a movie, promoting her new Disney blockbuster, travelling the world for humanitarian causes and caring for her six growing kids.
In her role as a United Nations Special Envoy , she was recently in Sarajevo with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague in a new campaign to stop rape being used as a weapon of war.
She told troops: It is inspiring that it is here in Bosnia, international peacekeepers are being trained to protect civilians from sexual violence. This is groundbreaking.”
There’s simply no stopping her . And when she revealed what she’d been going through last May fans wondered how on earth she’d coped.
The answer, she says, is Brad Pitt, the man who keeps her life in balance, and the love of their rainbow family”.
That’s Maddox, 12, Pax,10, Zahara, nine, Shiloh, seven, and twins Knox and Vivienne, five.
Brad is always encouraging me and willing to assume a lot of the parental duties,” says Angelina, 38.
He loves being a father and that’s one thing I’m most proud of about him. With a large family, you need that support.”
The couple have survived so much gossip since they got together on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith in 2004 when Brad was married to Jennifer Aniston.
Is it on, is it off, when will they marry? But it’s clear Angie is mad about him.
She says: Brad is a wonderful teacher and guide, for the boys in particular.
“He likes to plan things and proceed in a very deliberate and methodical way. He is much cooler and calmer… I can be more impulsive and outspoken.
“It’s very reassuring to know there is this very solid and generous man in your life.”
But how do they juggle celebrity careers and globetrotting with the demands of six children?
She says: You get used to having this huge commotion around you.
“I’ve always been the kind of person who enjoys being alone yet once our family grew larger I discovered that I am truly happy to find myself surrounded by the children and have them come in when I’m taking a bath or lying down on the sofa or bed.
Even though it can be tough with six kids, especially after I had the twins, things have settled into a more natural rhythm.
“We always consult each other in advance to know how much time we need for work and where we need to go.
Brad and I never work at the same time and we have the advantage of many months off.
“He is a very hands-on father and he loves to make breakfast and drive them to school in the mornings.
“If I need to work on something I know that he will always be ready to take over.”
That wasn’t needed as she prepared for her role in the Disney remake of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent.
In fact she honed her role as the evil Queen by practising scary voices at bathtime.
When I told the kids I was playing her they went, ‘She’s sooo scary!’ I couldn’t figure out her voice at first,” she says.
Then I was giving my kids a bath, making up stories about Maleficent and they weren’t really paying attention until I started to mess around with this one voice that gets very, very dark.
Then I would go outside and scream at the bushes to expand my voice. So, mom was a bit nutso for a period.”
Her make-up and costume are so scary they even terrified her own children.
It’s the yellow eyes that are the most frightening – and the horns,” she says.
When Pax saw me for the first time, he ran away and got upset.
I had to take off pieces of the make-up in front of him to show him it was all fake.”
Daughter Vivienne, five, wasn’t scared at all, which meant she got a role in the film as the young Princess Aurora.
Brad and I think it’s fun for our kids to have cameos. But I think we’d both prefer that they didn’t become actors,” says mum.
Angelina is even maternal about cast members when she directs a film, saying: I remember seeing my actors dressed up for a premiere and I’d think, ‘Oh, did she get the right earrings? Did he get anything to eat?’?”
She has just finished directing her second movie , Unbroken, about US soldier Louis Zambrini, now 97, an Olympic athlete who ended up in a brutal Japanese POW camp.
I’m drawn to fighters and strength of will,” she says.
She herself has stayed strong all through her traumas, and although she faces more surgery in future, she insists: I’m very happy I made the decision.
Wherever I go I run into women and we talk about health issues, women’s issues, breast cancer, ovarian cancer.
I’ve talked to men about their daughters’ and wives’ health.
“It makes me feel closer to other people who deal with the same things and have either lost their parents or are considering surgeries or wondering about their children.”
