Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie gave birth to twin children in Nice, France.

The girl and boy, named Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon, added to the four children of couple, Brad pitt and Angelina Jolie.

The actress Angelina Jolie, 33, had them by Caesarean section at the Lenval hospital on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, with her partner, Brad Pitt, the father of the babies, believed to be at her side.“The parents and the babies are in excellent health. Everything is fine,” Jolie’s doctor, Michel Sussman, said.

The couple, who first announced their relationship in 2005 after acting together in the film Mr and Mrs Smith, have adopted three children – Maddox, 6, Pax, 4, and Zahara, 3 – from Cambodia, Vietnam and Ethiopia, respectively. They also have a natural child, Shiloh.

Exclusive rights to the first photographs of the babies have been sold for $11 million (£6 million) to an unnamed US magazine, reported the newspaper Nice Matin, which broke the news of the birth yesterday. The couple intend to give the money to charity, it said.
Vivienne Marcheline weighed 2.27kg (5lb) and her brother an almost identical 2.28kg, according to Dr Sussman. He believed that the girl may be named after Jolie’s mother, the actress Marcheline Bertrand, who died in January 2007 after a 7½-year battle with cancer.

Dr Sussman said that Jolie was expected to remain in the hospital for a few more days.