Angelina Jolie Gushes About Queen Elizabeth: “She’s a Lovely Lady Who Really Cares About People”

When Angelina Jolie famously shook Queen Elizabeth's hand at Buckingham Palace back in 2014, the royal clearly made a lasting impression on the A-lister. In the new ITV special The Queen’s Green Planet, the actress visits Namibia with her six kids to teach them about forest conservation in Africa.

In fact, Angelina learned much of the insight she's passing on to Maddox, 16, Pax, 14, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 11, and Vivienne and Knox, 9, from the Queen herself when they met nearly four years ago. "For us to come here and say to the children, 'This is why it’s important to plant a tree,' that’s the biggest message I can teach my kids, and it’s something that they’ve certainly learned from Her Majesty and her message," she says in the documentary airing on Monday, April 16.

"They ask me, 'Why is it so important to her?' You know when you sit up at night in a tent with your kids and they say, 'Why does the Queen of England care about planting trees in Africa?'" she adds. The documentary highlights Elizabeth's environmental project The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy.

The Mr. and Mrs. Smith star proceeded to gush about the 91-year-old. "What it comes down to is you say to the kids, 'You know really, you don’t know her, you can’t understand all that it means to be a queen and all that," she says. "But you try to say, 'You know she’s just this really lovely lady who really cares about people around the world, and she really cares about the future, and she wants your grandkids and her grandkids to be able to be running around, enjoying nature and other cultures, and the importance of other cultures.'" Angelina adds, "She thinks that really matters and I agree with her."