Angelina Jolie Is Feeling ‘Reflective and Emotional’ As She Prepares to Turn 50 Years Old: Source

Elegant in a one-sleeved white gown, Angelina Jolie declared her love of international cinema while calling attention to the tragic stories of women who’ve suffered amid war and conflict. “We know that many artists around the world lack the freedom and security to tell their stories, and many have lost their lives,” the actress, director and humanitarian said during an event hosted by Chopard during the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, naming women from Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine. “We owe all of those risking their lives and sharing their stories and experiences a debt of gratitude,” she added, “because they have helped us to learn and to evolve.”

She, too, is evolving. On June 4, Angelina will turn 50 — and she’s ready. “I do feel like an older woman now and I embrace that,” the famed bombshell said last year. Even at age 40, she was already dreaming of celebrating this milestone. “Both of the women in my family, my mother and my grandmother, started dying in their 40s,” she told Vogue in 2015. “I can’t wait to hit 50 and I know I made it.” But before looking ahead, she’s found value in revisiting where she’s been. Substance abuse, depression and a mental breakdown haunt her past. And her love story as one half of Hollywood’s most golden couple with Brad Pitt, 61, spectacularly imploded, tainted by allegations of abuse and bitter legal battles. Now, as her big birthday approaches, “She’s feeling reflective and emotional,” a source tells Star. “She’s talking about what a journey it’s been — and telling friends she’s ready to share all.”

Wild Child

She’s already been open about the darkest chapters of her past. Living with her mother, Marcheline Bertrand — who died at 56 in 2007 after a long battle with cancer — young Angelina tested her limits following the actress’ divorce from Jon Voight, now 86. Marcheline often relented, even allowing her 14-year-old daughter’s boyfriend to sleep over. “I was either going to be reckless on the streets… or he was going to be with me in my bedroom with my mom in the next room,” the star said. But even in the safety of home, things got dangerous. Angelina started collecting knives and would sometimes draw blood from her boyfriend or self-harm. “Whenever I felt trapped, I’d cut myself,” she said. “I have a lot of scars.”

The Oscar winner’s late teens and early 20s were even more volatile. “I did the most dangerous and I did the worst. For many reasons, I shouldn’t be here,” Angelina said in 2011, admitting to doing “just about every drug possible,” including cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and LSD. In 2014, convicted drug dealer Franklin Meyer claimed that in 1999, he was delivering $100 heroin and cocaine packets to Angelina’s N.Y.C. apartment three times a week. “Things were bleak,” says the source, describing the period of her life that also included a filthy apartment and calling her dealer. She hit rock bottom.

Mental Health Struggles

Miraculously, in the years following her split from first husband Jonny Lee Miller, 52, Angelina cleaned up her act. But in the early aughts, she dropped more bombshells: In 2000, the year she wed second husband Billy Bob Thornton, 69, the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider star entered the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and was placed on a three-day mental health hold amid “a nervous breakdown” triggered by her inability to locate the Landman actor, she later told TV host Larry King. (The pair famously wore vials of each other’s blood around their necks.)

At one point, she contemplated taking her own life. “This is going to sound so insane, but there was a time when I realized I was going to have to hire somebody to kill me,” Angelina said, admitting she met with a hitman. “He made me think about it for a month. And [after] a month,” she said, “other things changed in my life, and I was surviving again.”

A New Era

Becoming a mom at 26 — first adopting Maddox, 23, alone, then welcoming Pax, 21, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 19, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16, with Brad — was a turning point. “My entire life changed… Having children saved me — and taught me to be a better human being.”

After their nearly 12-year romance and two-year marriage crumbled in 2016 following a drunken altercation on a plane she’s said turned violent, Angelina was determined to keep Brad away from the kids. (The F1 actor, who got sober after the incident, has long denied her claims of domestic abuse.) More than eight years later, they finally settled their contentious divorce. “It’s done and dusted, and custody won’t be an issue when the twins turn 18 next year,” says the source. “There was so much Angelina wanted to say while she was going through it but couldn’t. Now there’s really nothing stopping her, and she wants to tell her side of the story.”

Bitter Battles

First, she’s opening up to her kids. “She’s talking to them more about what happened between her and Brad — the good, the bad and the ugly,” says the source. “They deserve to know the truth and she wants it to come from her.” Brad, however, continues to blame Angelina for his estrangement from their children, the source confirms. “He believes she turned them against him. He’s sought court intervention, but it’s clear Angelina won that battle.”

She and Brad are still at war, however, over their former family home and winery in France, Château Miraval. Brad maintains she didn’t have the right to sell her half to a Russian billionaire rather than allowing him to buy her out for $54.5 million in 2021; she disputes that. At a legal crossroads, their battle is likely headed to trial after years of litigation.

While she may never change how she feels about Brad, according to the source, Angelina’s feelings about his former wife — and her role in their 2005 split — have shifted. Angelina initially denied seducing Brad while he was still wed to Jennifer Aniston, 56, saying, “To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive.” But in 2008, she and Brad both admitted they “fell in love” while making Mr. & Mrs. Smith, confirming an emotional affair at the very least.

In those early, giddy years, “Angelina showed she had little respect for Jen [and] considered her a second-rate TV actress with no depth or sophistication,” explains the source. Now that she’s older, and after her decades of humanitarian work “championing women,” says the source, Angelina views that chapter of her life very differently. “She wants to be supportive of all women.”

MOVING ON

And to find support herself. Last fall while promoting her film Maria, the former special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees admitted to feeling “a loneliness” in her life. She’s ready to change that. “A serious relationship was the last thing she wanted or needed — the kids always came first,” says the source. “That’s not to say she didn’t squeeze in a fling or two.” On the verge of being an empty nester, says the source, “dating would be nice.”

It’s time to move on — and be open. “I’m looking forward to my fifties,” she told British Vogue. “I feel that I’m gonna hit my stride in my fifties.”