Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s 21-year-old daughter Zahara appeared to send a very clear message to her father at her graduation ceremony over the weekend.
Zahara, who was adopted by Jolie in 2005 and later legally adopted by Pitt, received her bachelor’s degree in psychology. While walking on stage to accept her diploma at the Atlanta-based college, Zahara was announced as Zahara Marley Jolie, with “Pitt” being excluded from her last name.
This is not the first time that Zahara, who is currently estranged from her 62-year-old father, has made the decision to drop her father’s name.
In 2023, Zahara joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Spelman College. The then-18-year-old announced herself to her new sorority sisters without using Pitt’s name.
“My name is Zahara Marley Jolie,” she said proudly. “Coming all the way from the Golden State in the city that is full of angels, Los Angeles, California … I am this line’s number seven.”
Zahara is not the first of her five siblings to drop “Pitt” from her last name.
In 2021, it was reported that her brother, Maddox, had begun referring to himself simply as Maddox Jolie and had a desire to legally change his name to remove “Pitt.”
Meanwhile, in 2024, the former couple’s daughter Vivienne appeared to take the same route when she worked alongside her famous mother on the Broadway show The Outsiders. The now 17-year-old was listed simply as “Vivienne Jolie” on the show’s playbill at the time.
Of the six children that Jolie and Pitt share, three are adopted and three are biological.
Jolie and Pitt officially divorced in December 2024, with Jolie having filed for divorce back in 2016.
In past legal documents, Jolie spoke about the pain the split caused for her family.
"The events leading to my need to separate from my ex-husband were emotionally difficult for me and our children,” she wrote. “Upon filing for divorce, I left him control (and full residency) of our family homes in Los Angeles and at Miraval, without compensation, which I hoped would make him calmer in his dealings with me after a difficult and traumatic period."
