Despite claims that Angelina Jolie would spend this weekend in the hospital after giving birth last Saturday, the actress and her newborn babies Knox and Vivienne, were discharged from the maternity clinic early this morning.

"Angelina Jolie left the Clinic Santa Maria of Fondation Lenval early in the morning of July 19th," hospital rep Nadine Bauer told People. "The mother and babies are doing very well."

The 33-year-old actress managed to slip unnoticed by the very few French journalists who camped outside the Foundation Lenval hospital in Nice, France hoping to capture the moment she'd leave the clinic.

"Angelina left at 4am in a blacked-out ambulance," a source was quoted by E! Online as saying. "And she's now back at Chateau Miraval with Brad, the kids, her brother James Haven and Bill and Jane Pitt, Brad's Mom and Dad."

The decision to leave the building in the middle of the night belonged to her and the security team because chances of being followed by the paparazzi would be less that way.

Dr Michel Sussman, Jolie’s obstetrician, told reporters waiting at the hospital at 9:00am, "You can go home. The story is over."

The hospital thanked Jolie and Pitt for choosing their hospital to have the babies and also applauded the hospital staff "for the attention and care they paid to the family" and the "journalists around the hospital who did their best to respect their privacy."

The Oscar-winning actress checked into the clinic on July 2 and gave birth 10 days later by Caesarean section. The normal hospital stay following such a procedure is usually between 8 and 10 days, a spokesman for the hospital said, but Jolie seems to have checked out early.

Last week, her doctor admitted he felt pressured to help the actress deliver the babies because of their fame. Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon were named honorary citizens of Nice, by the mayor, before they were born. The two join Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's four other children — Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 2.

A local newspaper - the Nice Matin - has reported that an unnamed American publication has already paid $11 million for exclusive rights to the first pictures of the twins, with the proceeds going to charity. The sum is a record number in the celebrity baby photo industry. The record was previously held by Jennifer Lopez, who sold her baby photos for up to $6 million to People magazine, while Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's two-year-old biological daughter Shiloh's first photos were sold for $4 million.