Kids help Jolie connect with her mom

Whenever actress Angelina Jolie looks at her children, she feels connected to her late mother Marcheline Bertrand, who passed away in 2007 after a long battle with ovarian cancer.

Jolie talked about her mother's legacy during an interview with French Marie Claire, reports people.com.

"I'm not certain...I feel in contact with my mother when I look at my children. I can feel her influence over me then. I see that my way of raising them resembles the way she raised my brother and I.

"It's more apparent with my daughters Shiloh and Vivienne. Therefore, yes, my mother is there, present in this influence, all the time," Jolie said when asked whether she believes in life after death.

The 39-year-old star, who honoured her mother at her wedding with actor Brad Pitt in August, describes her mom as "very soft", but someone who "could move mountains for her kids".

"That's something I always admire in women: that mix of softness and strength. She was half Indian, and I remember that as a small girl, she took me to a dinner for Amnesty International," Jolie said.

The "Maleficent" star has six children -- Maddox, 13, Pax, 10, Zahara, 9, Shiloh, 8, and five-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.