Angelina Jolie’s squad includes two high-powered politicos.
Over the past few years, the Oscar-winning actress, 41 — who filed for divorce from husband Brad Pitt September 19 — has grown close to Lady Arminka Helic. The Bosnian-born member of the U.K. House of Lords once worked as an adviser to former British foreign secretary William Hague. Jolie has also become tight with another former Hague aide, Chloe Dalton. Both women, according to an insider, are currently with Jolie and her children, Maddox, 15, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and 8-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, at a rented home in Los Angeles.
Jolie, a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Helic first bonded in 2012, when Jolie and Helic’s then-boss, Hague, partnered for an anti-sexual violence initiative. “They’re very close and have a lot in common,” says a Jolie family source. “It’s rare that Angie meets someone that she connects with on this level.”
As Jolie shifted her focus away from Hollywood, Helic began “helping Angie make decisions on what she wants her next political move to be,” continues the source. “Angie considers her a mentor.”
In 2015, Jolie, Helic and Dalton (the daughter of a former ambassador) formed the Jolie Pitt Dalton Helic foundation, an organization that aims to prevent violence against women and help refugees. Hague has praised their work, telling U.K. newspaper the Evening Standard in 2015 that the trio “are full of ideas.”
The source says Helic was also instrumental in getting Jolie involved with the London School of Economics’ Centre for Women, Peace and Security. In 2017, Jolie will lecture as a guest professor.
Helic in particular has become more influential in all aspects of Jolie’s life. “Angie trusts Arminka implicitly and values her opinion more than anyone else right now,” continues the source. “She has been taking on recommendations over the months when it comes to other things such as who works on her security team and the children’s education.”
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Last April, Helic was even spotted out with Jolie and her kids on a shopping excursion in London.
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