Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s daughter Zahara Jolie-Pitt seemingly dropped her father’s last name months before her younger sister Shiloh Jolie-Pitt filed paperwork to legally change her name.
While celebrating her status as a new member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in November 2023, Zahara, 19, appeared to leave out her dad’s last name when identifying herself.
“My name is Zahara Marley Jolie,” she said in a resurfaced clip. “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.”
In the video, Zahara stood alongside her sorority sisters as they presented themselves as the newest class of the Mu Pi chapter at Atlanta’s Spelman College. Vice President Kamala Harris, Brandy, Wanda Sykes and Yvette Nicole Brown are some of the famous alumni from the sorority, which is the first intercollegiate, historical African-American sorority in the country.
The moment holds new resonance after Angelina, 48, and Brad’s other child Shiloh, 18, took legal steps to drop her 60-year-old father’s last name.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Shiloh filed paperwork to legally change her name on May 27, which also happened to be her milestone birthday as a legal adult. Shiloh requested to drop her father’s surname so she could go by Shiloh Jolie. The request has yet to be approved.
Us previously learned that Shiloh and Zahara’s younger sister Vivienne, 15, also unofficially dropped Brad’s last name. While working as a production assistant on the Broadway play The Outsiders, which is being produced by Angelina, Vivienne (whose twin brother is Knox) was credited in the show’s Playbill as Vivienne Jolie.
“She’s been a really tough assistant,” Angelina told People in April. “She takes it very, very seriously.”
While Angelina and Brad’s children have not publicly explained their decision to seemingly remove Pitt from their last name, there is speculation that it could have to do with their parents’ ongoing and bitter divorce.
The actors split in September 2016 after more than a decade together. While they have been declared legally single, both Brad and Angelina (who also share Maddox, 22) have not come to an agreement on their divorce, custody of their children and ownership over their French winery, Chateau Miraval.
A source exclusively told Us Weekly in March that there could be an end in sight in terms of the ongoing divorce proceedings. “The negotiation process was agonizing, but the financial docs were filed in the last couple of weeks,” the insider shared. “Brad just wants to move on with his life, and this final step symbolizes relief and a definitive end to their relationship.”
When it comes to Brad’s dynamic with his children, the source added, “He wishes their relationship was stronger and wants to work on that.”
