Angelina Jolie opens up about struggling to find accurate medical advice for her children ‘from different backgrounds’ and reveals daughter Zahara, 16, recently had surgery
- Angelina Jolie opened up about raising children from ‘different backgrounds’ while interviewing a medical student for Time Magazine
- Jolie conducted the interview about Mind the Gap, a new online platform addressing the gap in medical teaching that only focuses on white skin
- ‘I have children from different backgrounds, and I know when there was a rash that everybody got, it looked drastically different depending on their skin color,’ she said
- Jolie also revealed that her 16-year-old daughter Zahara recently had surgery but didn’t explain the situation further
- The actress and UN Special Envoy is a contributing editor for Time
Angelina Jolie gave a rare glimpse into her life as the mother of six children in a new piece that she penned for Time Magazine in her capacity as a contributing editor.
The 46-year-old interviewed medical student Malone Mukwende about his initiative to bridge the gap of medical knowledge when it comes to people of color as most medical books neglect to teach about ailments on black and brown skin.
During her piece, Angelina sympathized with the issue, explaining that she struggled to find medical advice for her children ‘of different backgrounds’ when they all came down with the same rash. She also revealed that her daughter Zahara, 16, recently underwent surgery.
Parenting: Angelina Jolie says struggled to find medical advice for her children ‘of different backgrounds’ and revealed that her daughter Zahara recently underwent surgery in a new piece that she penned for Time Magazine (Pictured in June)
‘I have children from different backgrounds, and I know when there was a rash that everybody got, it looked drastically different depending on their skin color,’ the activist said.
‘But whenever I looked at medical charts, the reference point was always white skin,’ she added.
Mukwende’s handbook, Mind the Gap, addresses those types of issues by aggregating photos and information about various medical conditions on different, non-white skin tones.
‘Recently my daughter Zahara, whom I adopted from Ethiopia, had surgery, and afterward a nurse told me to call them if her skin “turned pink,” Angelina said.
‘I have children from different backgrounds, and I know when there was a rash that everybody got, it looked drastically different depending on their skin color,’ the activist said. ‘But whenever I looked at medical charts, the reference point was always white skin,’ she added.
‘That’s the kind of thing I started to notice very early on. Almost the entirety of medicine is taught in that way,’ Mukwende responded.
Adding: ‘Like you’ve just illustrated, that’s a very problematic statement for some groups of the population because it’s just not going to happen in that way and if you’re unaware you probably won’t call the doctor.’
The actress has three biological children with her ex-husband Brad Pitt, Shiloh, 15 and 12-year-old twins Knox and Vivian, as well as three adopted children 19-year-old Maddox from Cambodia, 17-year-old Pax from Vietnam and 16-year-old Zahara from Ethopia.
The Maleficent star, meanwhile, is back home with her family after doing some charitable work with the United Nations.
Her first order of business when she was back in Los Angeles was heading out to grab a gourmet bite to eat with a few of her children at Baltaire in Brentwood.
Using her platform: Angelina just returned back to the states after working in her capacity as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Special Envoy in Burkina Faso for World Refugee Day
Jolie was seen Monday night heading into the hot spot with 17-year-old Pax and 16-year-old Zahara following her trip to Burkina Faso for World Refugee Day.
Angelina just returned to the states after working in her capacity as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Special Envoy in Burkina Faso for World Refugee Day.
Highlighting how the number of displaced people in the world has doubled in the past year, she said in the West African nation: ‘There is nowhere I would rather be today than here, with refugees, the people I admire most in the world.’
Back home: Jolie’s personal life has been in headlines quite a bit recently as she has been spending time with her ex-husband Jonny Lee Miller at his apartment in New York during a recent visit (seen in 1999)
More than 1.2million people in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa have been forced to flee their homes since 2019, according to the United Nations.
Speaking in Burkina Faso’s Goudoubo refugee camp, in the central city of Kaya, Ms Jolie added that she had ‘never been as worried’ about displaced people as she is now.
‘We have to wake up to the track we are on globally, with so many conflicts raging and the very real possibility that climate change will force tens if not hundreds of millions of people to have to leave their homes in the future, with no possibility of return,’ she warned.
Jolie’s personal life has been in headlines quite a bit recently as she has been spending time with her ex-husband Jonny Lee Miller at his apartment in New York during a recent visit.
Angelina and Jonny were married in 1996 after meeting on the set of their movie Hackers a year prior, but separated shortly after and officially divorced in 1999.
The actress and Pax were spotted heading into Miller’s Brooklyn home last week for a visit. And, a day prior Jolie spent hours with her former flame at home enjoying dinner and wine.
The visits came after Angelina was reportedly left ‘bitterly disappointed’ after a court awarded joint custody to her ex Brad Pitt with the star allegedly set to appeal the decision with a hearing due for July 9.
Butting heads: The actress shares her six children – Maddox, 19 (not pictured), Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15 and 12-year-old twins Knox and Vivian – with ex-husband Brad whom she is currently battling for custody (seen in 2019)
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