Newsmaker

Jolie: Birth experience was 'terrifying'

(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-17 14:55

Angelina Jolie, in her first US interview since the birth of her daughter last month, says the experience was frightening.

Actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie left Namibia Saturday June 10, 2006 and could be headed to California, according to an online report. [AFP]

"You know, because you're there for the birth, which I wasn't for my first two kids, you're just suddenly terrified that they're not gonna take a first breath," the 31-year-old actress says in an interview to air Tuesday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" (10 p.m. EDT).

"That was my whole focus. I just wanted to hear her cry."

Jolie gave birth to Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt on May 27 at a private clinic in the resort town of Walvis Bay in Namibia. The baby, healthy and weighing 7 pounds, was delivered by Caesarean section.

In excerpts of the interview, released exclusively to The Associated Press on Friday, Jolie says Brad Pitt was in the operating room for the delivery.

"He was in the operating room, yeah, yeah," she tells Cooper. "And we had amazing doctors. And everybody was so lovely."

Jolie and Pitt, 42, have since left Namibia with their newborn daughter and two older children: 16-month-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia, and 4-year-old Maddox, adopted from Cambodia.

Both Maddox and Zahara's surnames have been legally changed to Jolie-Pitt after Pitt announced his intention to adopt the children as well.

The actress also acknowledges to Cooper that she gives a third of her income to charity and jokes, "Yeah, well, I had a stupid income for what I do."

The Jolie interview will air Tuesday as part of CNN's entire day of programming devoted to World Refugee Day.