Jon Voight is a Hollywood actor with two children. Both of those children followed the star into the entertainment industry, becoming performers themselves. The more famous of these two children would be Angelina Jolie. Jon has had a contentious relationship with his two kids over the years, and a big part of that is due to the fact that he cheated on their mother. Join Facts Verse as we explore how Jon Voight has huge problems with his own children.
Jon Voight Has Never Been a Family Man
Jon Voight has never been much of a family man. The actor became a star thanks to his performance in the cutting-edge 1969 drama Midnight Cowboy. The movie was filmed right in the middle of Jon’s two marriages. Jon was married to actress Lauri Peters from 1962 to 1967, and the two didn’t have any kids. After divorcing from Lauri, Jon performed in Midnight Cowboy and was subsequently on top of the world when he married Marcheline Bertrand in 1971.
Like Lauri Peters, Marcheline Bertrand was an actress at the time that she became involved with Jon Voight. In 1973, Jon and Lauri would bring the first of their two kids into the world, with that kid being James Haven. 1975 saw the birth of Angelina Jolie. To this day, James and Angelina are the only two kids that Jon has. However, his relationship with them isn’t the best. Jon’s relationship with his two kids started falling apart early on, as he was never there for their mother.
Jon Voight continued acting after marrying Marcheline Bertrand, and he expected Marcheline to quit her profession to be there for their kids. Jon was hardly around at all. Jon not being around for his wife and kids because he was acting was one thing, but the actor took it too far when he cheated on Marcheline. Jon and Marcheline’s marriage came to an end in 1980 as a result of the actor’s infidelity.
Jon Was Never There for His Kids
Given that Jon was already barely in the lives of his wife and kids, the actor’s 1980 divorce didn’t change much for anybody involved. Jon kept on living his life the way he wanted to, and Marcheline kept on raising her two kids without much input or help from their father. If Jon Voight had simply stayed away, everything might’ve been right with the family. However, not long after the divorce, Jon started making attempts to get closer to his kids than before.
As avid film historians might know, Angelina Jolie made her acting debut in the 1982 film Lookin’ to Get Out. The film starred her father, and Angelina took the role at his insistence. From the outside looking in, it seemed as if Jon just wanted the opportunity to bond with his little girl. However, as things continued, it began apparent that what Jon was really interested in was the public-relations angle.
Jon Voight being a deadbeat dad who wasn’t there for his kids wasn’t very good press, so the actor was advised to do whatever he could to make it look like he had a good relationship with his children. In 1986, Jon brought his children along with him to the Academy Awards. This provided a perfect opportunity for the three of them to be seen on cameras together as a happy family. However, when the cameras weren’t rolling, it seems that Jon didn’t have much interest in his growing children.
Angelina Jolie Became a Gigantic Star Herself
Of course, Angelina Jolie would go on to become a major star in her own right thanks to her appearance in the 1995 film Hackers. Though Angelina had Hollywood connections via her celebrity father, it’s debatable how much Jon really helped with getting Angelina into the industry. What’s inarguable is that Jon’s behavior towards Angelina when she was a child had some pretty negative effects.
Angelina Jolie has always been open about the damaging consequences that her father’s unstable behavior had on her while she was growing up. Angelina suffered numerous personal problems during her childhood, including eating disorders and insomnia. As a teenage, Angelina became heavily involved with drugs and alcohol, and these issues carried over into the burgeoning star’s adult years.
By the time that Angelina Jolie was 20 years old, the actress claimed that she had tried nearly every drug that was known to man. However, nothing that she tried could help make the pain of her unstable childhood go away. During her early 20s, Angelina attempted suicide twice.
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Angelina Used Her Trauma to Her Advantage
During her early 20s, Angelina Jolie tried to commit suicide on two separate occasions. Miraculously, neither of these two attempts proved successful. Though the actress had given up on trying to kill herself, her personal issues didn’t go away after her second failed suicide attempt. At the age of 24, Angelina had a nervous breakdown and was forced to stay at a psychiatric hospital for three days. Angelina would use these traumatic experiences to her advantage when performing in the role that would win the actress her first, and hitherto only, Academy Award.
Though Angelina Jolie’s breakout role was in 1995’s Hackers, it was 1999’s Girl, Interrupted that proved to the world that the actress was a force to be reckoned with. The film was a major success both critically and commercially, and Angelina’s supporting part in the movie was one of it’s most renowned aspects. Angelina had become a superstar without any help from her father, though the actress would still thank him when making her acceptance speech.
Many credit Angelina Jolie’s Academy Award acceptance speech with being the thing that brought father Jon Voight back into her life during her adult years. The two had remained distant since Angelina’s childhood, though Jon was apparently very touched when his daughter credited him during her acceptance speech. This led to the two patching up their relationship, and they would even go on to star in a film together with 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
Jon and Angelina Worked Together on a Film
In Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Jon Voight played the father to Angelina’s titular character of Lara Croft. Of course, the film was based upon the Tomb Raider video-game series. Many thought that Jon and his daughter sharing the screen together for the first time in nearly two decades meant that they had repaired their relationship for good. However, Jon tellingly didn’t reprise his role in the film’s 2003 sequel.
Around the same time that Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was being released, Angelina Jolie adopted her first child. This child’s name is Maddox. Infamously, the adoption almost didn’t go through because of a remark that Jon Voight made during an interview. The adoption process was stringent, and Angelina needed to keep her attempts out of the public eye in order for the adoption to go through. Jon accidentally let slip that Angelina was trying to adopt a child, and this almost made it so that the actress wasn’t given approval!
Angelina Jolie was understandably upset at her father for nearly messing up her first adoption. However, she still let him be a part of her life for the next couples of year. Sadly, the father-and-daughter pair’s relationship ended up falling apart again regardless. In 2002, Jon Voight gave another interview where he said things that damaged his daughter. This time, however, it wasn’t an accident. The interview saw Jon claim that his daughter was suffering from serious mental problems, and that she desperately needed help.
Jon Voight: Concerned Father or Manipulative Monster?
It’s easy to look at the remarks that Jon Voight made about his daughter during that 2002 interview and think that he was just being a concerned father. However, starting a public rumor that Angelina Jolie was once again dealing with mental instability was not something that helped her out whatsoever. Instead, the remarks that Jon made during the interview not only damaged Angelina, but they all-but destroyed the relationship that the two had tried to repair.
After Jon Voight’s inconsiderate 2002 interview, Angelina Jolie didn’t talk to him again for many, many years. Understandably, the actress came to view her father as toxic and didn’t want him around her or her kids. In 2006, Angelina’s mother passed away. It was the actress’s job to pass the news onto her father, which she did. However, the actress didn’t stick around on the phone line to see how her father was doing. Many years later, Angelina would finally be inspired to heal her relationship with her father once more.
Many credit Brad Pitt with inspiring Angelina to heal her relationship with her father for the umpteenth time. Brad apparently wanted his and Angelina’s kids to know their grandfather. Brad and Angelina have since divorced, but it seems that Angelina and her father are doing pretty well. After all these years, it seems that Jon Voight has finally realized how he needs to behave towards his children.
Though Angelina Jolie is the more famous of Jon Voight’s two kids, she’s not the only one that the actor has had a contentious relationship with over the years. Jon has also had a troubled relationship with son James Haven. However, as with Angelina, it seems that Jon has made some steps towards repairing his relationship with James over the years. James’ big problem with his father is that he was never there for him or his sister when they were growing up.
Brother-and-sister pair James Haven and Angelina Jolie also have a pretty strange relationship. After Angelina’s aforementioned Academy Award win for Girl, Interrupted, the actress shared a kiss with her brother and the ceremony that seemed more romantic than familial. Years later, James was hired to nanny Angelina’s kids only to be fired unceremoniously in the wake of her divorcing Brad Pitt.
Though Jon Voight has consistently tried to come off as a good father in front of the cameras, it seems as if the actor has been nothing but. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Jon Voight got daughter Angelina Jolie her first role on the screen when she was only 7 years old, and that a 2001 interview Jon gave almost prevented Angelina from adopting her first kid? Comment down below!
