ZAHARA JOLIE OFFICIALLY DROPS PITT FROM HER LAST NAME, MARKING ANOTHER CHAPTER IN ANGELINA JOLIE AND BRAD PITT’S FAMILY

Zahara Marley Jolie, the daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, has officially dropped her father’s last name after a California judge approved her petition to change it. According to court records reviewed by PEOPLE, as of Sept. 28, the 21-year-old is legally known as “Zahara Marley Jolie” rather than “Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt.” The change was approved without objection. Zahara is now the third of Pitt and Jolie’s six children to complete the legal process of removing “Pitt” from their last name, following Shiloh and Maddox. Vivienne has also filed a petition and is awaiting her court hearing in November.

The move had actually been foreshadowed months earlier. At her graduation from Spelman College in May, Zahara’s name was announced as “Zahara Marley Jolie,” and she introduced herself using that name as well. PEOPLE reported that Zahara filed her petition to remove “Pitt” from her last name in June, with paperwork dated back to late April. Just days earlier, her older brother Maddox had begun a similar process. Both siblings later published legal notices in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, a step required under California law before the name changes could be finalized.

For Zahara, the name change arrives at a particularly significant point in her life. She has recently completed her studies at Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college in Atlanta, and is entering adulthood with an increasingly distinct identity of her own. PEOPLE reported that Zahara graduated in 2026 with a degree in psychology. She also became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., one of the oldest and most established organizations for Black women in the United States.

Her years at Spelman have allowed Zahara to increasingly be seen as a young woman pursuing a path of her own rather than simply as the daughter of two Hollywood superstars. Throughout college, she occasionally appeared at family events but generally avoided turning her private life into a media spectacle. Her decision to join Alpha Kappa Alpha in 2023 also reflected her efforts to build her own community and connections. By the time she graduated, the name “Zahara Marley Jolie” had already appeared publicly, meaning the court’s decision ultimately formalized a choice she had begun using in her public life.

Zahara was born in Ethiopia in 2005 and was adopted by Angelina Jolie as a young child. Brad Pitt later became her legal father as the Jolie-Pitt family expanded. She grew up alongside five siblings: Maddox, Pax, Shiloh, and twins Vivienne and Knox. Each of the six children has developed different interests as they have grown older. Maddox and Pax have both participated in projects connected to their mother’s filmmaking career, Shiloh has pursued dance, while Zahara has focused heavily on her education and community involvement.

The story surrounding Zahara’s last name cannot easily be separated from the turbulent decade that followed the collapse of Jolie and Pitt’s marriage. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were once regarded as one of Hollywood’s most powerful couples. They began their relationship in the mid-2000s, raised six children together and married in 2014 after years together. Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, only days after a private family flight. The separation was followed by years of disputes involving custody, finances and shared property. The couple finally finalized their divorce settlement in December 2024, bringing an end to one of Hollywood’s longest-running divorce battles.

The 2016 flight also became a significant part of the family’s legal history. After Jolie filed for divorce, Pitt was investigated over allegations concerning his conduct toward one of the children during the flight. Sources cited by PEOPLE previously said that Pitt had allegedly been “verbally abusive” and “physical” with one of his children. The FBI later cleared the actor following its investigation, while the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services concluded its investigation with no findings of abuse. Those allegations therefore need to be distinguished from the official investigative outcomes and should not be presented as a finding that Pitt committed abuse.

In the years that followed, Pitt’s relationship with his adult children became a particularly sensitive subject. A source close to Pitt told PEOPLE in 2024 that the actor had “virtually no contact” with his adult children. Other sources have offered different explanations for the distance. A source close to Pitt later described the situation as “a prolonged campaign of alienation of children against their parent,” while sources on Jolie’s side have disputed that characterization. One source close to Jolie told PEOPLE that if the public knew the full story, there would be “more sympathy for the children and respect them.” These are claims from people aligned with the respective sides and are not independent findings by a court.

The fact that four of the six children have now taken steps to remove “Pitt” from their names has therefore attracted particular attention. Shiloh was the first to file a petition to drop her father’s name, doing so on her 18th birthday in 2024. Maddox subsequently completed his change from “Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt” to “Maddox Chivan Jolie” on Sept. 14, 2026. Zahara’s petition has now been approved, while Vivienne filed her own petition on her 18th birthday in July and is scheduled for a court hearing on Nov. 2. Among the six siblings, Pax and Knox have not had similar legal proceedings publicly reported.

The name changes, however, do not by themselves establish exactly how each child feels or why each individual made the decision. Court records confirm that the children involved have sought to use “Jolie” rather than “Jolie-Pitt,” but they do not provide a complete explanation of their personal motivations. In Zahara’s case, the fact that she had already used the name “Zahara Marley Jolie” at her graduation before the court formally approved the petition suggests that the name was already part of her public identity. Still, it would go beyond the available evidence to assume that all four siblings made their decisions for exactly the same reasons.

On Angelina Jolie’s side, her relationship with Zahara has been described warmly. A source told PEOPLE in May that the actress has an “amazing relationship” with her daughter and shows up for “pretty much everything” Zahara is involved in. The source also said that Jolie encourages all six of her children to develop their own identities while supporting the interests and talents that make each of them different. “She really encourages all the kids to embrace their individualities,” the source said. “She always loved their different personalities, interests and talents.”

That approach is consistent with comments Jolie has made about motherhood in recent years. As her children have grown older, she has emphasized the importance of allowing them to develop independently rather than trying to control every decision they make. In an interview with L’Officiel, Jolie said, “One of the most important things, I think, is to basically not get in their way.” She has described parenting as a process in which adults can offer support while recognizing that their children are ultimately independent people with lives and potential of their own.

Zahara’s transition into adulthood has also taken place alongside a new phase in Jolie’s career. After years of reducing her workload to focus on family, the actress returned to the screen in Maria, portraying legendary opera singer Maria Callas. In 2026, she continued with Couture, a film she directed and produced, in which her character faces a breast cancer diagnosis. The project carries personal significance for Jolie, who underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 after learning that she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation.

Jolie’s life during this period has therefore extended far beyond her disputes with Pitt. She has continued working in film, fashion and humanitarian efforts while preparing for a stage of life in which all six of her children are adults or approaching adulthood. PEOPLE has reported that Jolie put her California estate on the market for nearly $30 million and has been looking toward a lifestyle that allows her to spend more time on international work and humanitarian activities in Cambodia. She has also continued developing Atelier Jolie, the creative venture she founded, while considering further film projects.

Brad Pitt, meanwhile, has entered a new chapter of his own professionally and personally. Following the end of his marriage to Jolie, Pitt continued acting and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2020. His later film F1 returned him to the center of a major commercial production, while he has also been romantically linked to jewelry designer Ines de Ramon. His professional achievements, however, have not erased the remaining legal disputes with Jolie, particularly the long-running conflict surrounding Château Miraval.

The Château Miraval dispute represents a separate chapter in the former couple’s post-divorce battle. After Jolie sold her interest in the French winery to Tenute del Mondo, a company connected to the Stoli Group, Pitt filed a lawsuit in 2022, arguing that the sale violated a previous agreement between them. Jolie responded with a countersuit and accused Pitt of “waging a vindictive war against” her. The legal dispute has continued through subsequent proceedings and remains one of the most prominent unresolved issues between the former spouses.

Against that backdrop, Zahara’s decision to change her name cannot be completely separated from the history of the Jolie-Pitt family, but neither should it automatically be interpreted as a statement on behalf of all six children. Zahara is now 21, has graduated from college and is entering adulthood at a point when she can define how she wants to be identified and what kind of life she wants to build. Her use of “Zahara Marley Jolie” at her graduation, followed by formal approval from a California court, shows that the process developed over time rather than appearing suddenly.

For Angelina Jolie, the moment also comes at a stage when she has repeatedly emphasized her desire to allow her children to live as independent individuals. For Zahara, Maddox, Shiloh and Vivienne, the name “Jolie” has now become a legally recognized choice or is moving toward that status. For Brad Pitt, meanwhile, his relationship with his adult children remains a subject of public attention, while his legal disputes with Jolie have not entirely disappeared.

Zahara is therefore entering adulthood with a milestone that is deeply personal but also inevitably connected to one of Hollywood’s most closely watched families. From the little girl adopted by Angelina Jolie in Ethiopia to a Spelman College graduate and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, she has gradually built an identity beyond the names of her famous parents. She is now officially Zahara Marley Jolie. The decision does not, by itself, explain everything that has happened within the Jolie-Pitt family over the past decade, but it marks a clear legal change in her identity. As the six children grow older, the family once known around the world as “Brangelina” is entering an entirely different chapter — one in which each child is increasingly deciding who they are, what they want to be called and what kind of life they want to create for themselves.