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Angelina's Heartbreak

Originally posted Thursday February 01, 2007 12:00 PM EST

Jolie (with Pitt) was criticized by The New York Times as appearing "humorless" at the Golden Globes on Jan. 15. "I wonder if the reporter feels good . . . now that she knows why she might not have been feeling full of humor," says a source. Photo by: Chris Haston / NBCU

Slammed by some in the press for being aloof, Jolie was in fact grappling with a very private pain: Her mother, Marcheline Bertrand – whom the actress once described as "the most compassionate woman I know" – was then in the final stages of her 7 ½-year battle with ovarian cancer.

On Jan. 27, Bertrand, 56, lost her fight at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, with Jolie and Pitt – who had flown in from New Orleans, where he has been filming – and her son James Haven by her side. "There are no words to express what an amazing woman and mother she was," Jolie and Haven told PEOPLE in a statement. "She was our best friend."

Both of Bertrand's children are devastated by the loss of a woman friends call unfailingly gentle and giving. "Marcheline was the most lovely, lovely person," said actress Jacqueline Bisset, Jolie's godmother and a close friend of Bertrand's. "She worked incredibly hard to raise both Jamie and Angelina and dedicated herself to their happiness. She had a kind of enlightened spirit."

That spirit was a source of strength to her 31-year-old daughter, who has described Bertrand as a constant in a tumultuous life. "She's like the sun coming up in me," Jolie told Britain's Sunday Times in 1999. Jolie's similarities to Bertrand – in dark-haired beauty and an adventurous nature – were evident early on. "Marcheline set the foundation for Angie to become who she is – from all the wildness to the strong, socially aware woman that she is now," says a friend. Adds another: "March was so sweet and good and wise, and she raised Angie and Jamie to be good people. Everything they are is Marcheline."

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