--- description: Unlike Gwyneth Paltrow, ahem title: Angelina Jolie Knows Just How Lucky She Is image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8d91e2e08d548db/6986908413c79f7ceb192327/489895137.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Living](/tag/time-section-living/) ## Living Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Angelina Jolie Knows How Lucky She Is and Isn't Embarrassed to Talk About It  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent May 22, 2014 4:06 PM CUT  Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attend the New York premiere of "The Normal Heart" at Ziegfeld Theater on May 12, 2014 in New York City. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attend the New York premiere of "The Normal Heart" at Ziegfeld Theater on May 12, 2014 in New York City.Ben Gabbe—Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent May 22, 2014 4:06 PM CUT BREAKING NEWS: A celebrity said something about motherhood and nobody is upset about it. When Angelina Jolie was asked what she thought of New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray’s comments about guilt and motherhood, she used it as an opportunity to acknowledge how lucky she is to be a rich movie star mom. “I’m not a single mom with two jobs trying to get by every day,” she told the [New York Daily News. ](http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/angelina-jolie-doesn-feel-mom-guilt-work-life-balance-article-1.1800106 "undefined")“I have much more support than most people, most women in this world. And I have the financial means to have a home and health care and food.” “When I feel I’m doing too much, I do less, if I can,” she said. “And that’s why I’m in a rare position where I don’t have to do job after job. I can take time when my family needs it.” Jolie stars in the upcoming Disney movie _Maleficent_, in which her daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt makes her acting debut. Jolie was directly responding to the backlash to Chirlane McCray’s comments in New York Magazine this week about how it was difficult for her to adjust to motherhood: --- > “” --- McCray’s insight doesn’t seem so crazy — it seems pretty understandable, actually — and the rest of the piece detailed how she had stopped working for several years after she had her second child to care for him and her mother and her mother-in-law both of whom moved in with the de Blasio family. But that didn’t stop the [New York ](http://nypost.com/2014/05/18/chirlane-mccray-didnt-want-to-spend-every-day-with-baby-chiara/ "undefined")[_Post_](http://nypost.com/2014/05/18/chirlane-mccray-didnt-want-to-spend-every-day-with-baby-chiara/ "undefined")from taking advantage of that moment of candor to put a screaming “I was a bad mom” headline next to McCray’s face on their cover. Jolie may have been asked about McCray, but in her answer she’s offering a direct contrast to statements by Gwyneth Paltrow, who got slammed for telling [E!](http://www.eonline.com/news/525210/gwyneth-paltrow-s-post-split-plans-actress-reveals-she-s-taking-a-break-from-acting-to-focus-on-her-kids "undefined") movie stars have it harder than moms who work office jobs. --- > “” --- Paltrow’s tone-deaf comments sparked even more outrage than McCray’s, and caused working moms everywhere to [ridicule](http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/angelina-jolie-doesn-feel-mom-guilt-work-life-balance-article-1.1800106 "undefined") her ridiculous notion that filming one movie a year is harder than working a steady job. **MORE:** [Gwyneth’s Mom Problem](http://time.com/41966/gwyneth-paltrow-goop-mom-problem-working-in-movies-is-hard-for-her-but-harder-if-youre-not-the-star/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/109032/angelina-jolie-knows-how-lucky-she-is-and-isnt-embarrassed-to-talk-about-it/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/109032/angelina-jolie-knows-how-lucky-she-is-and-isnt-embarrassed-to-talk-about-it/"},"headline":"Angelina Jolie Knows How Lucky She Is and Isn't Embarrassed to Talk About It","datePublished":"2014-05-22T16:06:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:14:59.964Z","description":"Unlike Gwyneth Paltrow, ahem","url":"https://time.com/109032/angelina-jolie-knows-how-lucky-she-is-and-isnt-embarrassed-to-talk-about-it/","keywords":["Living","motherhood","Angelina Jolie","Gwyneth Paltrow","TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8d91e2e08d548db/6986908413c79f7ceb192327/489895137.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8d91e2e08d548db/6986908413c79f7ceb192327/489895137.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"The Normal Heart\" New York Screening - Arrivals","caption":"\"The Normal Heart\" New York Screening - Arrivals","creditText":"Ben Gabbe—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/109032/angelina-jolie-knows-how-lucky-she-is-and-isnt-embarrassed-to-talk-about-it/","name":"Angelina Jolie Knows How Lucky She Is and Isn't Embarrassed to Talk About It"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Angelina Jolie and Genetic Testing","description":"Though Angelina Jolie's genetic test results are rare, she has raised awareness for how this science can help the treatment of disease","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TB8g1r3J/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-05-15T22:31:19.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TB8g1r3J.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/109032/angelina-jolie-knows-how-lucky-she-is-and-isnt-embarrassed-to-talk-about-it/","duration":"PT1M14S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/109032/angelina-jolie-knows-how-lucky-she-is-and-isnt-embarrassed-to-talk-about-it/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```