So for Mother's Day he drew a machine-gun, and Brad had it made into a necklace, which is really sweet. It's really cute.'
When he was seven she talked about starting a dagger collection for the boy. She told W magazine: 'My mom took me to buy my first daggers when I was 11 or 12, and I've already bought Maddox some.'
For his eighth birthday treat Maddox was taken to visit a refugee camp in Iraq.
People who have spent time with the family say that chaos reigns wherever they are.
Indeed the decade of Brad-and-Ange family life has certainly included more movement than stability. Aside from their house in LA, they have settled in New Orleans and in France, rented houses in London and called myriad luxury hotels a temporary home.
And — perhaps most peculiar of all — from time to time Mum and Dad would leave just to get away from it all.
'The nannies sit up watching cartoons with the children at all hours of the night, while Brad and Angie are sleeping soundly in another room.
'Two nannies ended up resigning when Angie was working on the 2008 film Wanted. The nannies ended up working for months on end, around the clock, with no holiday or days off.
'Brad might suddenly turn up and decide to eat pizza with the kids or he'll take them out for the day and totally throw their routines.
For example, they once took the twins out in the middle of the night in Jordan and fed them ice cream.
'But these are children, plus orphans have abandonment issues, so they need roots, ties, friends . . . all the things that they don't have.'
It is said that the children are 'shy' on the rare occasions that they do socialise with other children.