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She was in her element. During a whirlwind week in NYC, Angelina Jolie hosted two events at her Atelier Jolie studio, then walked the red carpet at the New York Film Festival with kids Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, and Maddox, 23, on September 30, before stepping out for lunch with Pax on October 1. She even managed to squeeze in some time with rumored beau, British rapper Akala, who was by her side at two of the events.
“She seems really relaxed and happy,” a source exclusively tells In Touch. “It’s like she’s turned over a new leaf.”
And she’s leaving the past behind. On September 25, Angelina, using the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” officially dropped a lawsuit against the FBI and the Department of Justice that was filed in 2022, related to the investigation into her marriage-ending fight with Brad Pitt aboard a private jet in September 2016.
“Brad’s team has always contended that they both got full reports already and this lawsuit was just another way for her to destroy his reputation,” says the source. “But it seems she’s finally given in.”
Most of the scandalous details have already been made public anyway. According to the FBI report, Brad, 60, argued with Maddox before getting on the plane, then got drunk and “mimicked the behavior of a monster and screamed at them.” She and the kids were so “shellshocked,” the actress, 49, added, that she was “frozen, scared and didn’t know what to do.” She said she was left with two small injuries.
In a separate lawsuit over their marital home, Château Miraval in France, Angelina’s lawyers gave an even more comprehensive play-by-play of the confrontation. According to legal papers, a drunken Brad grabbed Angelina “by the head, shaking her and pushed her into the bathroom wall.” He also allegedly told the children: “She’s not OK. She’s ruining the family. She’s crazy.” He also “lunged” at a child who tried to intervene, she claimed, and “poured beer on [Angelina] and the children.”
In another filing, she claimed he “choked one of the children and struck another in the face.”
Brad admitted to a drinking problem, but denied hitting his kids. The L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services cleared Brad, and he wasn’t charged. But Angelina filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all of the paperwork, arguing that a statement of probable cause had been prepared by an FBI agent and given to prosecutors, who declined to act.
“This has contributed to [their] ongoing harm by delegitimizing their experience,” she argued, “making it difficult to demonstrate in ongoing family law proceedings.”Those proceedings are now all but over, as only two of their kids are under 18. “Technically this is a victory for Brad,” says the source, “but the damage has already been done.”
