After more than 20 years together, Angelina Jolie and the UN organization that handles refugees are splitting up.
The 47-year-old actress and the organization said jointly on Friday that she was “moving on” from her position as the agency’s special envoy in order “to engage on a broader set of humanitarian and human rights issues.”
In addition to her new partner Ines de Ramon, Jolie’s ex Brad Pitt was seen at the Babylon premiere on Thursday. She said, “I will continue to do everything in my power in the years to come to support refugees and other displaced people.”
She went on to say that she believed it was time to “work differently” by interacting with local groups and refugees directly.
Jolie began her career with the United Nations refugee agency in 2001 and was named as its special envoy in 2012. She was one of the organization’s most well-known ambassadors.
The U.N. said that the celebrity had most recently visited Burkina Faso and had “carried out more than 60 field missions to bear witness to stories of suffering as well as hope and resilience.”
“After a long and successful time with UNHCR, I appreciate her desire to shift her engagement and support her decision,” said Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
“I have no doubt that she will continue to have a strong commitment to the refugee cause and that she will apply the same enthusiasm and focus to a broader range of humanitarian issues.”
Jolie hinted at her displeasure with the lack of progress being made on a worldwide scale to prevent sexual assault in conflicts in an opinion article that was published in The Guardian last month.
We get together, talk about these tragedies, and decide that they must never occur again. We pledge to draw that line and to keep it there. But we keep running into the same issues when it comes to making difficult decisions about how to carry on these commitments,” she said, especially criticizing members of the U.N. Security Council for “abusing their veto authority.”
In 2001, Jolie started going to refugee camps and was named a UNHCR goodwill ambassador the same year. Then-high commissioner expressed his hope that the 26-year-old actress would raise awareness of the refugee crisis among young people at the moment.
The organization refused to provide further information in response to a request for more commentary, including whether they will choose a different special envoy to take Jolie’s position.
In the meanwhile, Angelina and Brad’s divorce has been contentious due to their disagreements on commercial endeavors and child custody.
On the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2005, Brad and Angelina first got together to portray a bored married couple who later found out they were both assassins hired by rival agencies to murder one other. He was married to Aniston at the time.
Six children, three biological and three adoptive, who are now between the ages of 14 and 21, were born to Brad and Angie after their 2014 wedding at Chateau Miraval.
Despite being declared legally single in 2019, Brad and Angie are still resolving their complex financial issues and child custody issues.
Pitt and Jolie purchased the renowned vineyard and 35-room Chateau Miraval in the south of France for $60 million in 2011, and the two have been embroiled in a court dispute over it ever since.