ANGELINA JOLIE and BRAD PITT’s adoption of a baby from Ethiopia has been ruled legal by the agency that first approved it in 2005.
The ruling has quashed speculation that the woman who gave up two-year-old Zahara wanted the child back.
But Dr Tsegaye Berthe, head of the Wide Horizons for Children Agency, slammed the rumours as "media hype by unethical journalists".
At the time of the adoption the girl’s grandmother sent a letter to a court in the country’s capital Addis Ababa stating that Zahara’s mother was dead.
Dr Berhe confirmed this and insisted that Jolie and Pitt were deemed to be worthy parents, saying, "The court approved the adoption after studying the document her grandmother wrote.
"The grandmother brought three witnesses to court who testified that Zahara’s mother had died and that her father was unknown.
"The court also investigated the social status of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt before approving the adoption." Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox, six, from Cambodia in 2002, who was followed by Zahara, two, from Ethiopia, and Pax, three, from Vietnam. Pitt later applied to become their adoptive father. The couple also have their own biological daughter 17-month-old Shiloh.
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