The Brangelina twins are here: Angelina Jolie has given birth to a girl and a boy.
The obstetrician who delivered the twins, Dr. Michel Sussmann, told The Associated Press that the actress, the babies and Jolie’s partner, Brad Pitt, “are doing marvelously well.”
Sussmann said Jolie gave birth to a boy, Knox Leon, and a girl, Vivienne Marcheline, by Caesarean section on Saturday night.
He told the AP on Sunday morning that the boy weighed just over 5 pounds and the girl 5 pounds. The 33-year-old actress gave birth at around 8 p.m. last night, the doctor told the AP by telephone.
Pitt was there during the operation, said the doctor, who delivered the twins at the seaside Lenval hospital in Nice in southern France.
“Everything is going well,” said Sussmann.
He said the Caesarean was moved forward from its originally planned date “for medical reasons” so that the babies could be born “in the best conditions.” Sussman did not give details.
He said Jolie is expected to stay in the hospital for a few more days. The doctor said he understood the baby girl’s middle name was chosen in honor of Jolie’s mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, who died in January 2007 after a 7 1/2-year battle with cancer.
Jolie and Pitt already have four children: Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2.
Jolie had checked into the hospital late last month to relax and be monitored by her doctor before the birth.
Before that, she, Pitt and their children had moved into a large estate, Miraval, in the French hamlet of Correns, which is just a short helicopter ride from the hospital. Correns is about 60 miles from Nice, a resort on the Mediterranean.
Jolie managed to slide unnoticed into the clinic, which has superb panoramas of the Mediterranean, reportedly arriving by helicopter on the hospital’s rooftop helipad.
The first photos of the new twins are predicted (actually, they WILL) obtain millions of dollars.
Paparazzi collected outside the hospital in Nice on Sunday morning, hoping for a shot of Pitt.
Local newspaper Nice Matin, which first broke news of the birth, reported Sunday that the couple has sold rights for the first photo of their recently enlarged family to a U.S. publication, which it did not name, and that the proceeds would go to charity.
The newspaper called the twins “the most famous babies in the world.”
Earlier this week, the hospital said it had covered the windows of Jolie’s room with a unique substance to avert paparazzi from taking unauthorized pictures of the star couple.
Tourists and residents of Nice, a prevalent resort, greeted news of the birth. The city’s mayor, Christian Estrosi, had previously told the AP that the twins will always be deemed honorary citizens of the city and that it was a “very great honor” for Nice that the Hollywood couple decided to give birth there.
