Angelina Jolie Puts On a Brave Face, Out With Kids In Paris Sans Maddox After Investigation Launches Into Woman Behind His Adoption
Angelina Jolie isn't in hiding, despite the scandal that's questioning whether her oldest son Maddox's adoption was legit.
The 46-year-old actress held her head high while walking through the City of Love with three of her children on Thursday. Maddox was nowhere in sight.
Angelia appeared like a protective mama bear while holding onto the hands of Zahara, 16, and making sure to keep Shiloh, 15, and Pax, 17, close by.
The Maleficent actress and her three kids were flanked by bodyguards, who helped fight off the crowd. The security pushed past eager photographers in Paris, making way for Angelina and her children on Thursday.
Angelina kept it chic, wearing tan wide-legged bottom slacks and a plain white tee that she tucked in to show off her curves.
Wearing a mask around her face for protection, the star kept her emotions hidden from camera lenses.
As RadarOnline.com reported, the legitimacy surrounding Maddox's adoption has come into question after a filmmaker promised to highlight Lauryn Galindo, the woman behind several alleged "unethical" Cambodian adoptions. She is the person who spearheaded Angelina's 2002 adoption for Maddox.
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It didn't help when the Academy Award winner's former friend Sarath Mounh added to the speculation that her son's poverty-stricken biological parents may have been alive at the time of his adoption, and they might have sold him for $100.
"I'm not 100% sure that Maddox was an orphan even though he came from an orphanage. At least one of the parents was possibly alive at the time of his adoption," he told Daily Mail, "But I never asked these difficult questions, nobody did."
Mounh made another shocking claim when he alleged he signed paperwork claiming to be Maddox's biological dad in order to speed up the adoption process. There is no evidence that suggests Angelina knew about this.
In the documentary, The Stolen Children, the filmmaker Elizabeth Jacobs investigates the woman behind Angelina's adoption of Maddox, as well as hundreds of others -- including her own.
One year after Maddox's adoption, Galindo was charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and the structuring of financial transactions.
Her sister was required to pay a $150,000 fine for falsifying documents to obtain US visas for so-called "orphans.
As for Angelina, she has always maintained that Maddox's adoption was legal. "I would never rob a mother of her child. I can only imagine how dreadful that would feel," the actress said in the past.
