Angelina Jolie: "I narrowly escaped a kidnap plot"

For the first time, Angelina Jolie reveals the shocking threat to her safety - and why she won't let it stop her charity work.

By Corrine Barraclough

Angelina Jolie is a woman on a mission. As a UN Goodwill Ambassador, she's now more famous for her charity work than her film roles. We're more likely to see pictures of her visiting aid projects in underprivileged countries than strutting down the red carpet or out at glitzy parties.

Her incessant globetrotting has worried her partner Brad Pitt, 43, who has voiced concerns for their safety as a family and tried to encourage her to spend more time at their Hollywood home. Hardly surprising, as in the last 12 months alone she has jetted to danger spots including Cambodia, Ethiopia and India. And Brad was right to be worried.

In an exclusive interview, Angelina shockingly reveals that authorities uncovered a terrifying plot to abduct her.

"It was in a small village," she says. "I won't say where, or with whom, but some gangsters planned to kidnap me and extort a massive ransom. I was warned at the last minute, and managed to escape, luckily."

It's a chilling admission from the famously fearless star. Since becoming an ambassador for the UN in August 2001, Angelina's role has taken her to 20 countries, and some of the world's most underprivileged regions.

"It became clear to me that I was an incredibly well-off star, and that I had to do something against the screaming injustice on this planet," says the 31-year-old actress. "Not just by giving speeches, I had to be actively involved. Since then I've travelled half the world. I went to see the people there up close. I didn't shut myself off in some luxurious hotel."

Despite the kidnap threat, Angelina is hell-bent on continuing her work at orphanages and is determined to carry on her charity work overseas.

"I don't want to act like the Mother Teresa of Hollywood," she insists. "But I want to help where there is poverty and destruction. I love Brad very much and on our trips we pull together as a team. Things only get difficult when it affects our children."

Angelina is a devoted mum to adopted five-year-old Maddox, and two-year-old Zahara, and nine-month-old Shiloh, her daughter with Brad. And she says that the responsibility of mothering her brood has tamed her wild ways.

"I have become more mature," says Angelina. "I have learned to accept responsibility for myself, my children and my partner. Becoming a mum was the biggest change in my life, and it made me feel like a complete woman. At times in my life I was lost, without a purpose, now I'm more grounded."

While she insists that she and Brad don't feel the need to marry, Angelina admits that they want to adopt more children.

And creating a secure and loving home for her family is at the front of Angelina's mind now more than ever, having lost her mother, Marcheline, 56, to ovarian cancer in January this year.

Distressed Ange was said to have been inconsolable when she lost not only her mother, but her best friend.

"She was more aware of what was going on than most mothers," Angelina once said. "I always talked to her about my problems."

Following short-lived marriages to British actor Jonny Lee Miller and US film star Billy Bob Thornton, Angelina has now settled down and her notorious bad-girl streak has been tamed. Gone are the death fascinations, collections of knives and vials of blood.

Today she's a loving mother and devoted partner. As she reflects on the Angelina of the past, you can almost sense her relief at being so settled.

"I have always lived close to the limit," she says, nodding. "I'm not sure if there was a key event that changed me, but I first had sex when I was 14. After that I was no longer a little girl. I was a brat with attitude.

"If I was to offer advice to young girls starting out, I would tell them not to focus entirely on their careers. If you are only defined by work, it will eat you up.

"The movie industry does try to manipulate you. I was distracted from my path for a while before I realised and got back on track.

"But without the role of Lara Croft, I would never have set foot in Cambodia. It was only because we filmed there that I got to see the catastrophic poverty of large parts of the population with my own eyes.

"The experience changed me a lot. I, the beautiful, typical American girl, was shocked to see how different life is there. It was a big step in my development."

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