Information about Angelina Jolie’s work on domestic violence since filing for divorce

Angelina Jolie after years of separation, she focused on finding reforms for people affected by domestic violence Brad Pitt.

The actress filed for divorce from Pitt on September 19, 2016, just days after a private plane flight during which he allegedly drunkenly abused her and their children. She declined to press charges at the time, and after multiple investigations, authorities did not charge Pitt. He denied the harassment allegations.

A source close to Jolie tells PEOPLE she wanted to “focus on changing the law rather than telling public stories” about her experiences.

After 20 years at the UN Refugee Agency, Jolie (49) resigned as UNHCR special envoy in December 2022 to focus on other humanitarian activities.

Her advocacy work has covered the areas of domestic violence, including the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which aims to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.

Jolie said this in a March 2022 interview with NBC News’ Kate Snow the reason should be “personal to each person.” — anyone who cares about family, anyone who cares about children, anyone who cares about their own safety and the health of their community.

“This country does not realize how serious a problem domestic violence and child abuse is,” the actress added at the time.

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One of Jolie’s six children with Pitt, Zahara joined her mother in Washington to meet with lawmakers several times when she was 17, including when VAWA was reauthorized by President Joe Biden in March 2022. VAWA added an initiative that Jolie helped implement: funding for technology that better detects bruises and injuries based on skin tone, and related training , highlighting racial disparity.

She wrote about it in July 2023 op-ed published in the American Journal of Nursing.

“Medical research, imaging and training continue to focus on white skin rather than how injuries look different in patients with darker skin tones. As a result, doctors – including nurses and medical examiners – often miss injuries based on race and ethnicity,” she wrote, sharing that Zahara, who is from Ethiopia, underwent a medical procedure during which she was told to look for “pink near incisions” to see if healing is abnormal.

“As a mother of children of many races, I I have seen my children of color misdiagnosedsometimes in ways that endanger their health.”

In a September 2021 interview GuardianJolie was asked about dealing with alleged abuse in her own home after years of humanitarian work for the rights of others. “Something is often impossible to recognize personally, especially if you focus on the greatest injustices in the world, because everything else seems smaller. It’s so hard,” she said at the time.

“I’m not a person who makes decisions like I had to make lightly,” Jolie added at the time. “It took me a long time to find myself in a situation where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children.”

Details of alleged illegal air travel provided included in a 2022 counter-complaint filed by Jolie’s legal team in the exes’ separate vineyard lawsuit. A source close to Pitt, 61, said the report contained “completely false information.”

Jolie’s lawyers alleged in an earlier filing in this legal battle that “Pitt’s story.” Jolie’s physical abuse began long before the family’s plane took off in September 2016” and that during the flight “it was the first time he directed his physical abuse at children as well.”

Pitt’s rep declined to comment at the time, and a source said, “There was a lengthy custody trial that covered the entire history of their relationship, and the judge who heard all the evidence still awarded him 50/50 custody.” (The private judge overseeing their child custody case was later disqualified by an appeals court, and the ruling did not take effect.)

Pitt’s divorce lawyer has previously said that the actor accepted responsibility for certain things in his past, but would not accept responsibility for things he didn’t do.

In broad-based 2017 GQ interviewPitt revealed that he is sober and “just started therapy.” The actor said at the time: “For me, this period was really about looking at my weaknesses and failures and owning my own side of the street.

Pitt and Jolie have six children together: Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16. According to a source identified in July 2024, Pitt he has “virtually no contact” with his adult childrenHowever, according to the contract with Jolie, “younger children are visited.”

The distance from his children “hurts him” a a source previously told PEOPLE. “He loves his children and misses them. It’s very sad.”

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or go to thehotline.org. All calls are free and confidential. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in over 170 languages.