Angelina Jolie's Brother James Haven Comes Out at 53: 'I'm Gay. I'm a Lot of Things'

James Haven — actor, filmmaker, Jon Voight's son, and Angelina Jolie's older brother — came out as gay on Thursday, at 53, in about the most intentional way a person can: a written letter, read aloud, beside the ex-wife who helped him say it.

The announcement came in videos posted to Romi Imbelli's accounts — a roughly 35-minute broadcast on her Breathe Mija Substack, as Gayety reported, along with posts on her Instagram. "I'm gay," Haven said on the livestream. "I'm a lot of things." Imbelli laughed and called him "as gay as gay can be," to which Haven replied, "I'm trying to keep my humility right now."

The letter is the part that will stay with people. "When I was a little boy, I was absolutely obsessed with the Disney princesses," Haven wrote. "I would sneak glitter onto my cheeks, swipe mascara onto my lashes, and for those moments, I felt like magic." And later: "Like so many gay kids, I learned to question parts of myself long before I learned to celebrate them."

If the ex-wife part sounds complicated, it is — and it's also the heart of the story. Haven married Imbelli, of The Real L Word, in August 2024; she filed for an annulment roughly two weeks later. On the livestream she described what that battle cost her: "There was a battle between how do you love and support somebody knowing their truth, but also how do you break the lie that you want to believe so badly is yours?" Where it landed is somewhere few divorces do. "You are my life partner. We will do life together," she told him. "You are my love. And you happen to be gay."

In her own post announcing the broadcast, Imbelli drew the line that matters: "I wasn't here to out someone I love. I was here to help set someone free."

For most of the public, Haven has been a footnote in his sister's story — he appeared alongside Jolie in Gia and Original Sin, with credits in Monster's Ball and CSI, and the two are still remembered for the 2000 Oscars red-carpet kiss that fueled years of tabloid speculation both siblings have repeatedly dismissed. He's now prepping a podcast, Safe Haven, built around conversations about personal journeys.

Here's our read, for whatever it's worth: coming out at 53 lands differently than coming out at 23, and not smaller. Imbelli said it best in a separate post: some people will shrug that they already knew — "But that's not the point. The point is that for a human being to spend a lifetime not feeling safe enough to say those words out loud… is heartbreaking."

Welcome out, James. The water's fine.