How Brad Pitt’s new lover Charlize Theron has an eerily similar life to his ex Angelina Jolie
ONE is a brunette and the other is blonde – but that’s where the differences end between Brad Pitt’s ex Angelina Jolie and his new love Charlize Theron.
Both of the Oscar-winning actresses had troubled childhoods and fought drug demons before conquering Hollywood with a series of kick-ass roles.
Beyond the movie world, they have become well-known for their humanitarian work.
And the two mums, who are both 43, have also adopted children.
Here we compare Angelina and Charlize’s lives and careers – and show why they have more than a little Pitt in common.
Dad Trouble
When she was 15, South African Charlize witnessed her mum Gerda shoot dead her dad Charles.
Her violent alcoholic father had threatened to kill Charlize and her mother before shooting through a door in their home.
Gerda shot back four times and killed him. Charlize’s uncle Danie was injured in the gunfire.
Police pressed no charges, agreeing Gerda acted in self-defence.
Angelina fell out with her actor father Jon Voight, choosing not to see him for nearly seven years after he claimed in 2002 his daughter had “serious mental problems”.
Midnight Cowboy star Voight split from her mum Marcheline Bertrand when she was little and the couple divorced when she was just four.
Both actresses praised their single parent mothers for giving them the strength to succeed — and Angelina was devastated when her mother died from ovarian cancer in 2007.
Charlize said: “I am lucky that I had a great mom who really kind of made me brave.”
Celeb Exes
The temptation of romance with a handsome co-star has been hard to resist for Charlize and Angelina.
Charlize’s longest relationship was with Irish actor Stuart Townsend, who she met in 2001 while making crime thriller Trapped.
Smitten Townsend, who was with the Hollywood beauty for nine years, once said: “We consider ourselves husband and wife.”
Charlize went on to date fellow actors Alexander Skarsgard, Ryan Reynolds, Keanu Reeves and Sean Penn, who she described as “the love of my life”.
It was Penn who introduced her to Brad — as revealed in The Sun on Sunday yesterday. Angelina met her first husband on the set of 1995 crime movie Hackers. They divorced in 2000.
She married second husband Billy Bob Thornton — her co-star in comedy drama Pushing Tin — in 2000. They divorced in 2003.
Bisexual Angelina also had a relationship with model and actress Jenny Shimizu, who she met when they filmed 1996 indie movie Foxfire.
Brad was married to Friends star Jennifer Aniston when he grew close to Angelina during the filming of 2005 action comedy Mr & Mrs Smith.
Drugs
Like her new love Brad, Charlize has smoked cannabis in the past.
Last year she admitted: “I was a wake-and-baker for most of my life” — meaning that she would get out of bed and roll a spliff.
Charlize says she “really appreciated marijuana way more than alcohol” but gave it up a decade ago because it made her “boring”. Angelina, meanwhile, has admitted to experimenting with cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and LSD in her youth.
She said in 2011: “I went through heavier, darker times and I survived them. I didn’t die young, so I’m very lucky.”
Like Charlize, she no longer dabbles in drugs and is clean-living.
Adoption
The two women have become mums to ethnically diverse children from poor nations in a bid to give them a better life.
Charlize said adoption was her “first choice” for motherhood, taking in South African son Jackson in 2012 when he was three years old.
Three years later she took on daughter August, who was eight months old at the time.
She revealed last year: “I was honest with my partners that I was open to having my own biological kids but that adoption had to be a part of my life. I felt that strongly about it.”
Angelina adopted three children. Her son Maddox, who is now 17, was born in Cambodia. Son Pax, 15, is originally from Vietnam, and daughter Zahara, 14, is from Ethiopia.
She also gave birth to three children — son Shiloh, 12, and ten-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne — who were fathered by Brad.
Changing The World
After witnessing her mum’s experiences of domestic abuse when she was a child, Charlize focused on eliminating violence against women when she became a Messenger of Peace for the UN in 2018.
She also founded the which aims to help families affected by HIV and Aids.
Like Charlize, Angelina has links with the UN. She is a special envoy, helping refugees.
In 2011, she directed the film In The Land Of Blood And Honey about war-torn Bosnia.
Ambitious Angelina has refused to rule out running for US President one day.
Nudity
Neither actress has shown any fear about stripping off on the big screen for racy roles.
Six years ago, Charlize boasted: “I don’t have issues being naked”.
And she has proved it with explicit scenes in The Cider House Rules, The Burning Plain, 2 Days In The Valley and horror flick The Devil’s Advocate.
But she tried to sue Playboy for publishing nude pics of her before she was famous — and lost.
Angelina has stripped off in movies Gia, By The Sea, Foxfire and Original Sin.
Kicking Ass
You don’t want to mess with Charlize or Angelina.
When she was working on the catwalks of Milan, Charlize punched a fellow model in the face after the woman got aggressive in a bar.
She also left Teri Hatcher with a bruised face when a fight scene went wrong in 1996 crime movie 2 Days In The Valley.
Charlize once boasted: “I’m a great driver. When I did The Italian Job, Mark Wahlberg, my co-star, would do one 360 and start puking. I was like, ‘What’s up, girl?’” Angelina does Thai boxing and performs “99 per cent” of her own stunts.
Both women have ridden Harley-Davidson bikes — like Brad.
On screen, Angelina has played gun-toting Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and a CIA officer in action thriller Salt.
Charlize has also played kick-ass heroines in Atomic Blonde, Aeon Flux and shaven-headed warrior Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Oscars Grunge
Both actresses have won the attention of Oscar judges by ditching the make-up and Hollywood glitz.
Charlize put on weight to play serial killer Aileen Wuornos, in Monster, while Angelina went anti-glam to play a mental patient, right. in Girl, Interrupted in 1999.
The South African won the Best Actress Oscar for 2003’s Monster — one better than the Best Supporting Actress Oscar Angelina got for Girl, Interrupted.
Pots of Cash
Angelina and Charlize have business brains to match their beauty with both sitting on multi- million pound fortunes.
Charlize is worth an estimated £85million — not too far behind Angelina’s £113million.
Angelina bagged a £15million payday for movie Salt — twice the amount Charlize earned for The Huntsman: Winter’s War. But it’s in advertising that Brad’s new squeeze bulks up her earnings.
Charlize picks up a reported £1.5million a year for Dior perfume ads.
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