Angelina Jolie and Rapper Akala Are ‘Not Dating’ and Are Just ‘Friends’ (Exclusive Source)

the actress and musician have been friends for “several years”

Angelina Jolie and rapper Akala are not dating, despite reports of them being an item surfacing after they were seen together leaving a hotel in Venice.

“She and Akala are not dating. She is friends with him and his partner, Chanelle, who was also there,” one source tells PEOPLE on Thursday, Aug. 29.

Prior to the photographs of the two at the film festival, In Touch claimed in May that the actress, 49, had been privately seeing the British musician, 40, for “more than a year.”

The Oscar-winning actress has been friends with Akala for “several years,” a second source tells PEOPLE. Jolie, 49, is currently single and not dating seriously, the source confirms.

“They share the same passion when it comes to social and humanitarian causes,” the second source tells PEOPLE. “They did several collabs over the years that focus on global issues like human rights. Angie speaks very highly of him.”

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The speculation around Jolie’s friendship with the rapper comes eight years after Jolie and ex-husband Brad Pitt divorced.

Since their split, the two have engaged in a years-long legal saga involving disagreements about properties, businesses and custody of their six children: sons Maddox and Pax Thien, daughters Zahara Marley and Shiloh Nouvel and twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline.

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Both Jolie and Pitt are attending the 2024 Venice Film Festival this year. Jolie is promoting her latest project, Maria, with director Pablo Larraín, and Pitt is promoting his new film, Wolfs.

The festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera recently told Vanity Fair that “of course” their appearances on the red carpet are spread out.

“Angelina will be on the first day, on Thursday [Aug.] 29, and she will leave right after with [Maria director] Pablo Larraín to go to [the] Telluride [Film Festival],” he told the outlet. “Brad will arrive only on Saturday, to Venice. There is no way that they can cross each other at the Lido.”

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Jolie’s film premiered on Thursday, and the actress received an eight-minute standing ovation, along with glowing reviews for her performance as opera singer Maria Callas.

Ahead of the premiere, Jolie spoke during the Thursday press conference about her personal connection to the late Callas.

“I think the way I related to her may be a surprise — [it was] probably the part of her that’s extremely soft and doesn’t have room in the world to be as soft as she truly was, and as emotionally open as she truly was,” she said of Callas. “I share her vulnerability more than anything.”

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