Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s daughter Zahara has officially filed to ditch her dad’s last name. It seems as though Zahara has already been going by Zahara Jolie for years now, but recently decided to make it official. In Touch was first to report that she has filed to change her legal name from Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt to Zahara Marley Jolie.
Angelina and Brad share six children: Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, Shiloh, 20, and twins Knox and Vivienne, both 17. Three of them (including Zahara) have taken legal action to drop their father’s last name. Brad rarely speaks about his children and does not appear to be involved in their lives. However, numerous reports have suggested that he blames Angelina for the distance between him and their kids.
A source close to Brad has reacted to Zahara’s name change.
The source told People, “It’s sad to see someone repeatedly publicize their successful alienation of their children from the other parent.” It’s not hard to figure out who “someone” might be. A couple of years back, it was reported that Brad had “virtually no contact” with Zahara, so the name change is not exactly surprising.
Previously, Maddox also legally filed to drop “Pitt” from his last name. Shiloh did the same on her 18th birthday in 2024. When Shiloh made that decision, a source claimed that “Brad was devastated by this choice” because he saw it as “more than a change of name.” To him, it reportedly felt like “a symbol of a deeper estrangement that has been brewing for years.”
Brad has reportedly tried to reconnect with some of his children.
Again, it’s not really something that he speaks about publicly. But in 2025, an insider told Page Six that Brad’s strained (or non-existent) relationships with his children have “caused him a lot of heartbreak.” The insider alleged that Brad has made “several efforts to reconnect” with his kids. At the time, the source believed that he continued to have some sort of relationship with his two youngest children, as he still allegedly saw them “periodically.”
That same year, the Daily Mail reported that Brad’s relationships with his two oldest children seemed to be beyond repair. The publication claimed that Brad held onto hope that he might one day reconcile with at least some of his kids. At the same time, an insider also alleged that “Brad honestly considers his relationship with Pax unfixable.”
Angelina previously said she left Brad “for the well-being of my family.”
🆕 #ZaharaJolie on "the superhero she always look up to" 🤧
— ᜀᜅ᜔ᜑᜒᜎᜒᜈᜇ᜔ᜌᜓᜎᜒ 👑💯 (@angeltresjolie_) April 27, 2026
"She's the most selfless, loving and understanding woman who I get to call my mom… I'm a strong woman bec a strong woman raised me."#AngelinaJolie pic.twitter.com/hNEhTu65vi
Speaking to Vogue India in 2020, she said, “I separated for the well-being of my family. It was the right decision. I continue to focus on their healing. Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds. In fact, they are six very brave, very strong young people.”
Angelina and Brad’s children tend to stay out of the spotlight. Their mom has said that they generally prefer to live private lives. However, Zahara recently gave a speech that went viral because it shed light on her relationship with her mother (and perhaps her father as well, given that he was not mentioned).
“I was adopted at 6 months old and given some of the most special and loving people as my siblings, with a mom who raised us on the value of helping others, being kind, and always striving for growth as people,” Zahara said. She added that she’s “grateful to have had a role model to show me what it looks like to be a decent human being.”
Additionally, she went on to describe Angelina as “the most selfless, loving, and understanding woman who I get to call my mom.”
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