Angelina Jolie is preparing to leave the United States later this year, with plans to relocate abroad once her youngest children, twins Vivienne and Knox, turn 18 in July, according to reports citing people familiar with her thinking. The move, long discussed in her circle, would mark a major shift for the Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker, whose professional life has been rooted in Los Angeles for decades but whose personal and humanitarian work has often centred overseas.
A key date is July 12, when Vivienne and Knox are due to reach adulthood. Sources quoted in recent coverage have linked Jolie’s timing to the end of constraints associated with her custody arrangement with former husband Brad Pitt, a factor that has kept her based in Los Angeles even as she has spoken repeatedly about wanting a different environment for her family. A source previously told People that she “never wanted to live in L.A. full-time,” but “didn’t have a choice because of the custody arrangement with Brad.”
Jolie, 50, is the mother of six: Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Vivienne and Knox. She and Pitt, one of Hollywood’s most closely watched former couples, share three biological children and three adopted children, a family structure Jolie has described as central to her worldview and decisions about where and how to live. Reports say she has been “eyeing several locations abroad” and would be “very happy when she’s able to leave Los Angeles,” language attributed to an insider familiar with her plans.
In interviews over recent years, Jolie has framed her desire to spend more time outside the United States around safety and privacy for her children, rather than career considerations. “When you have a big family, you want them to have privacy, peace, safety,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024. In the same interview, she added: “I have a house now to raise my children, but sometimes this place can be … that humanity that I found across the world is not what I grew up with here.”
Jolie has also spoken about a future anchored partly in Cambodia, a country closely tied to her family and humanitarian work. “I’ll spend a lot of time in Cambodia. I’ll spend time visiting my family members wherever they may be in the world,” she said, according to accounts of her comments. Cambodia is where she adopted her eldest child, Maddox, in 2002, and where she has often returned in the years since.
Her connection to Cambodia is longstanding and personal. In a 2020 interview with Vogue, Jolie described the country as pivotal in shaping her engagement with refugee issues and her own family life. “Cambodia was the country that made me aware of refugees,” she said. “It made me engage in foreign affairs in a way I never had, and join UNHCR. Above all, it made me a mom.” She also recalled a moment in 2001 when she felt drawn to adopt there: “In 2001, I was in a school programme in Samlout playing blocks on the floor with a little kid and as clear as day I thought: ‘My son is here.’”
Jolie’s international outlook, which she has described as “equal, united, and international,” has increasingly featured in her public remarks about American politics and culture. At the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain in 2025, she criticised what she described as a deterioration in the country’s values and freedoms. “I love my country, but at this time, I don’t recognize my country,” she said during a panel discussion, according to Variety. In the same appearance, she warned: “Anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from anyone, I think, is very dangerous.”
She added that she had “always lived internationally,” saying: “My family is international, my friends, my life… My worldview is equal, united, and international.” Jolie also cautioned against offhand commentary in what she called a volatile climate, saying, “These are such serious times that we have to be careful not to say things casually. These are very, very heavy times we are living in together.”
The comments fit a pattern of public interventions by Jolie on issues ranging from refugee policy to women’s health, and they come as she appears to be making practical arrangements for a future based outside Los Angeles. People has reported that she has been preparing her historic Los Angeles home for sale amid plans to move abroad, with renovations and viewings aimed at positioning the property for the market. The house, purchased in 2017, has been described in earlier reporting as a major family base during years of legal disputes and custody arrangements.
Jolie has previously addressed adoption, and the way it shaped her understanding of family, in interviews dating back years. In a 2008 Vanity Fair interview, she said: “When I was growing up I wanted to adopt, because I was aware there were kids that didn’t have parents.” She rejected the idea that adoption was an act of sacrifice, adding: “It’s not a humanitarian thing, because I don’t see it as a sacrifice. It’s a gift. We’re all lucky to have each other.”
Her criticisms of US policy have also been explicit in the past. In a 2017 op-ed opposing President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, Jolie argued the country could protect itself without broad exclusions based on nationality or religion. “We can manage our security without writing off citizens of entire countries even babies as unsafe to visit our country by virtue of geography or religion