Jon Voight: “I would love to see the kids”
Oscar winner Jon Voight, 69, made a quick stop on the red carpet at the MTV Movie Awards to talk to OK! Magazine about his grandchildren, and the two soon-to-be additions to his daughter Angelina Jolie’s family.
Jon, who has yet to meet any of the children, said he would "love to see the kids" and is "looking forward" to the twins’ arrival. He added that he thinks Angie "can handle" being a mother to two new babies.
Have you ever taken care of baby twins? It’s a deal, isn’t it? It’s a huge deal. You’ve just got two kids and if one starts crying then you [start] taking that one and then the other one — oh boy, you have to be young and strong to take care of twins.
Jon said that although he and Angelina "haven’t spoken recently," the only thing he wants is for his daughter and her babies to be healthy.
Right now I just want those babies to be healthy and for the mommy to be healthy.
The twins — who are due this summer — will join Angelina and Brad Pitt’s four other children: Maddox Chivan, 6 ½, Pax Thien, 4 ½, Zahara Marley, 3 ½, and Shiloh Nouvel, 2.
Source: OK! Magazine; photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com
- Posted on Jun 3, 08 at 1:36PM
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- 34 Comments
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I hope Angie gives him a chance,but he needs to stop talking to the tabloids about this.
When Angie was needed him, he’s never been there for her.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Good for her for having the strength to do what’s best for herself and her children.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I find interesting that some people always say that he should stop talking to press when he is asked questions about his relationship with his daughter and her kids…Angelina responds just as much to the press when she is asked about her relationship with her father (if i’m not mistaken she was asked in the new Vanity Fair that is featuring her), but I haven’t ever read any comments that she should keep quiet in regards to her father, and his comment was harmless…anyways I hope they do make up and he gets to meet his grandkids, but that’s her and brad’s decision.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Jon Voight is a brilliant actor, I especially like him when he appeared on Gunsmoke. Angie doesn’t like him because he cheated on her mom, well…what about her seeing Brad behind Jen’s back???
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I hope Angie will let him see the kids. He’s not getting any younger and surely at this point the hatchet can be buried. I know Shiloh looks like Brad but I can see a resemblance to her Grand-Dad too.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I’m still curious as to why there’s such a rift between these two. I’m not aware of the background story. I agree with Lena though. I think I’ve seen Angelina talk more about him to the press than he has about her. I know she used to be a drug addict and had some serious issues in the past so maybe that’s what started the whole problem? If so, then that’s understandable. Has anyone seen the video of her that recently circulated on the internet from when she was younger? She was on a drug high and was talking about killing animals or something. geesh… She’s come a long way, thank goodness lol.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I think it’s so sad that he hasn’t even met the kids. Unless someone is a molester or something awful like that, there has to be a time to forgive the mistakes of the past. Who knows though what the real situation is though. It just is sad because he seems to want to know the kids but is being denied that opportunity. I guess it just goes to show that no one has a picture-perfect family.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I honestly don’t know what to think about Jon Voight. Sometimes I feel bad for him, and then I think about him cheating on Angelina’s mother and leaving her and the kids. That happened to me and I can identify with any woman who has gone through it. And, I watched my mother go through it too. I can understand Angelina’s reluctance to have a relationship with him. He hasn’t always been the best or even slightly involved father. I don’t know if that is for lack of trying or lack of Angelina wanting him around. Life is short and although I don’t really like my dad I am civil to him. Maybe they could get to at least that point…civility.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
This situation makes me so sad. My family is very much pulled apart because of a family issue that happened several years ago.
It’s so hard to not have contact with everyone and especially hard on my Mother. To see the toll it takes on her to not see her grandbabies because people refuse to work on mending past hurts is awful.
I’ve done my best to reach out to my siblings and have been able to at least meet a few of my nephews and it breaks my heart to know I won’t know them as their Auntie.
I will always be a stranger.
I don’t really know why Angelina doesn’t speak to her Dad but I hope one day she can repair that relationship
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I agree that he should stop talking to the press. It probably makes Angie nervous that he’s going to blab about her business if she lets him back into her life. I know it’s tempting Jon, but just smile and say no comment (at least for now)!
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
It is possible to forgive someone and free yourself of the burden of anger without giving them a chance to hurt you again. Life is short, why waste any of it someone who’s proven himself to be unpleasant?
As for her children, why should she make her children the guinea pigs to see if he’s become a better person? Whose emotions are more important: a helpless child or a man in his sixties? Angelina Jolie is keeping her children safe in spite of the strong social pressure to offer them up as sacrifices to “family harmony”. I admire her for that.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
On one hand I do feel sorry for Jon Voight but then again Angelina has personally been hurt by him after he hurt her mother and it is hard to want to involve your children in a relationship with a man you cannot trust. After she first reunited with him he threw her to the dogs calling her crazy in interviews and then he called Zahara “Shakira.” It almost seems as if he is responding to these questions in such a way that will make him look good. It’s not like Angelina hasn’t given him a chance in the past – it is hard to keep giving people chances when it involves children. I think her approach of having a relationship that is not necessarily a father-daughter relationship is reasonable given their past.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Well I think one reason she doesn’t speak to her dad is b/c he said publicly that she needed treatment for “serious mental problems”. Maybe it was true, but I would be seriously pissed if my dad was broadcasting anything like that about me.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I hope he gets to meet the grandkids, and new babies soon. He seems to love angelina, and shiloh looks so much like him. He mentions his daughter because the press ask, the same way they mention jon to angelina, same goes for people like gwyneth paltrow, ashley judd, lisa marie, kate hudson, etc who all have famous parents.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I basically grew up without grandparents (they were all dead before I turned nine) so I made sure my son had a close relationship with my own parents. He and my mother are still very close, although he is grown up now. Grandchild/grandparent relationships are very special and I hope Angelina can find it in her heart to allow her father to get to know his grandchildren. I don’t know even a fraction of what went down between Angelina and Jon Voight, but maybe he is trying to make up as a grandparent for the ways in which he failed as a parent. Maybe Brad can mediate in this matter and help bring them together. I hope so.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I think it’s a tough call but once you become q parent you consider what is best for your kids first. Rather than worrying about appearances to outsiders it seems Angie is just doing what she feels is best. Not like she is simply holding a grudge. By her accounts she did not have him around (physically or emotionally) growing up; his infidelity was a big part of that. But maybe she wants to protect her kids from being let down. Just because someone is older does not mean they have learned from those experiences. Sadly I know this firsthand.
Someone wrote ‘It’s not like she was molested’ but… physical abuse is serious and warrants drastic action i.e. severing ties. But emotional abuse (or abandonment) scars severely as well. It lingers and does not go away even when the perpetrator is old and seems like a kindly senior citizen. I had to make that call myself. After my parents were allowed to see our baby (I made a huge effort, made them at ease, etc) something came up that was a glaring example that my father’s vicious old ways had returned and frankly, it wasn’t even a decision: they cannot have the chance to influence our child much less say the terrible things that scarred us kids for years. Why take a chance?
If I cannot trust my kids alone with someone for fear of their words/behavior why see them at all? It’s sad but child’s emotional well being comes first. Thankfully we have a super loving home and we still have my husband’s parents. I would do anything for a warm, positive relationship with my parents for my kids too but..some things just are what they are. It’s tough but a lot harder to undo damage from an emotionally abusive person.
Anyway. sorry for the long book here but just another perspective as it is close to my own situation. We never know someone else’s reasons for their decisions.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I know what it’s like to have a “toxic parent”. My mother is like Jon. They make a big show about being a caring person, but in reality it’s different. Rarely do they get any better for the grandkids. Personally, I think Angie is doing the right thing by protecting herself so that her kids don’t see her stressed out over her dad. I don’t think Brad should mediate either, because oftentimes it doesn’t work and then more people get hurt.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Sarah, my mother and I have had a toxic relationship for decades. But to be fair to her, she was not a toxic grandparent. Sometimes people realize their mistakes, sometimes they don’t. Angelina has to play it as she sees fit and do what she thinks is best for the children. But unless she has good reason to feel that Voight’s presence might actually be harmful to any of the children, I hope she cuts both sides a break and lets them meet. It’s not like he’s going to move in with the family, know what I’m saying?
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I think it would help if he would stop talking to the press about her. I can imagine that she worries about her privacy if she lets him into her life again.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Good points, Jen & Tink! I also feel like you should try and make it work with family unless for extreme circumstances! Who knows how long we have on this Earth. I think being an ACTIVE grandparent would change his life.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Read all the replies and good points also Lara and Nicole. I remember seeing that Shakira thing and it really made me cringe!
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:47 pm
My husband and I both come from very disfunctional families. However, our children had close relationships with all their grandparents. In one case, I made the decision never to leave the children alone with a relative, but they had good (supervised) time with that grandparent. It depends on the individual, but I believe bad parents are capable of being good grandparents.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:58 am
I don’t know any thing about the rift going on between Jon and Angelina but what I have read on here. But IMO if Jon cheated on Angie’s mom Marcheline and left her then what should be realized is he cheated on Marcheline and walked out on Marcheline…. not the kids (Like I said I don’t know the whole situation – I just know what I have read on here). Maybe Marcheline wouldn’t allow him to have anything to do with Angelina and James out of fear that he would break their hearts or hurt them also.
I do think it’s really sad that he’s not even as so much as meet his grandchildren. And I hope that Angie is doing it out of concern/protection for the children and not just holding a grudge (or using them just to hurt him – tho I don’t see Angie as being this type of mom). I hope that Angie and Jon can communicate and work out a solution – and stick with it – so that Jon and his grandbabies can have a relationship.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:55 am
If the reason she doesn’t see/talk to Jon is that he cheated on her mother, then Angie is a hypocrite. She is really starting to grow on me but it’s stuff like this that makes me wonder about her.
SHE HERSELF cheated with Billy Bob Thornton when he was with Laura Dern and it’s been speculated that she was with Brad while HE was married to Jennifer.
My point being, she has made the SAME mistake as Jon did but she holds it against him…not really fair is it?
There has to be more to the story that nobody knows and Angie has her good reasons for excluding her father from her children, but he may be a fantastic grandfather to them.
My own father in law was a crappy father to my hubby, but he is a great Grandpa to our son.
I hope Angie gives Jon a chance to be a Grandpa for the kids’ sake and his.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:55 am
I usually stay out of these discussions, but it really bugs me that people are assuming that Angelina cheated with BB and Brad.
Why are you not assuming that BB cheated on his fourth wife with Laura Dern, or that Laura Dern cheated with Ben Harper while he was still with the women who just had his child? She and Brad said numerous times that there was no relationship before his separation.Is it because Angelina is beautiful that she get all this rage from women, that all the other celebrities are not subjected to?
I am disapointed that CBB stuff is increasingly allowing bashing on this blog
June 4th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Hi Bancie1031,
Jon also appeared on a tv programm crying that he was concerned about Angie and that he was worried about her mental state of mind. He said something about wanting her to seek mental help. I think this started for Angelina to replying back to the media that she wishes for her father to stop talking to the media about her and that she is doing just fine.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Jon does not deserve a place in Angelina’s life, nor the life of those children.
People act as if he was mean to her a couple of times. It goes way deeper than that. The man was truly horrible to Marcheline and left her alone, struggling to raise their two children whilst he was the darling of Hollywood.
Did anyone know that he sent Angelina a letter as she left for her first humanitarian trip. He told her to open it on the plane. It was a 14 page letter telling her what an awful, horrible person she was and how he was ashamed of her.
14 pages.
Imagine reading that and then turn round and say he deserves a second chance.
As an adoptive parent, Angelina knows more than most that blood does not equal family. Just because he has biological ties to Angelina, that does not make him her father. The title of father or mother is earnt and Jon hasn’t earnt the right to call himself anyone’s father or grandfather.
Angelina will no doubt do what she feels is best for herself and her children I just hope she treads carefully. I’d hate to see Jon Voight let her down and hurt her again.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:36 am
I hope their relationship improves, but only if he is able to change. Angie has forgiven him and has tried over and over to have a good relationship with him..so has her brother. James and Angelina have talked about how emotionally abusive he has been to them both..and their mother. Even after Angie got him a part in her movie..and they seemed to be getting close again..he wrote her a nasty, cruel letter criticizing everything in her life(this after doing interviews claiming he was proud of her and loved working with her, and how close this had made them).
Angie make a decision then to not have him in her life because he made her feel bad about herself. She said her stomach would hurt being around him. She didnt want this for her kids so the separation was needed.
Her brother Jamie also is estranged from Voight, but no one seems to complain about that.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Jon seems like a strange character but let’s not forget there was a time we all thought Angie was one too (remember the billy bob carrying blood around their neck days)???
So let’s say perhaps the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. And Angie did a lot of growing up and granted some people never learn perhaps Jon has and deserves not to be shut out of his grandkids lives. If he’s willing to make the effort give him the chance.
I am sure it was hard for Angie to grow up knowing what her father did and I’m not in a place to judge. But my philosophy is that you lead a much healthier happier life when you can forgive (not forget) what someone did and either move on complelely or do your best to try and rebuild the past in order to make a much brighter future. I myself have had to do that with people in my life as well.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I think Angelina should also consider the fact that she might have contributed to the breakdown of Brad and Jen’s marriage. Of course there were kids in Brad & Jen’s marriage, but still, it’s a similar situation. But people move on, and I think Angie should cut her dad some slack and let him see his grandkids.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Someone who bought a new issue of People said Voight was with his son, James. It seems Voight is in the process of mending the relationship with his children. First it started with exchanging cards and then calling. I think in Vanity Fair interview she said she called her father.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
James and Brad’s brother Doug have been working together for a charity of supplying water to African people. Doug is now a director of Jolie-Pitt Foundation. And Brad’s mother Jane donated money to Angie’s mother-related charity.
I heard Voight has been a do-gooder. Pitts and Voight can unite all together for common goal. After all both Brad and Angie were raised by confident believers of God.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:31 am
If Angie has stated that she wished he would stop talking to the media about her than I think it might be a good idea for him to abide with her wishes when he’s trying to mend their broken relationship. And wanting to meet his grandchildren.
Like I said I don’t know about their dispute other than what is stated on here but I’m sure there’s probably more to it than any of us know about.
And I still hope that Angie and Jon can get together, talk and work out their disagreements with one another. But unforunately what I want doesn’t count LOL
June 7th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Did you people ever think that perhaps he changed? I mean remeber what ANgelina use to be like? Didnt she changed? She must have because apparently (acording to CBB readers) shes just wonderful (i dont hate her, but dont like her nearly as much as to what you people feel for her). As for the married cheating thing, well Brad Pitt was still married when he dated her. Now, Im not accusing HER of STEALING him (I could care less about that part of their life) but regardless even if it is HIS fault for cheating on his wife, she dated him while he was married. To be honest Angelina doesnt seem any different than her father, but I await the wrath of all the Angelina fans…but it would help to look at it from a non bias point of view before blasting me