Zahara Jolie, 21, received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Spelman College in Atlanta on Sunday, walking across the graduation stage and accepting her diploma as “Zahara Marley Jolie,” conspicuously leaving out the surname of her estranged father, actor Brad Pitt.
Angelina Jolie watched proudly from the crowd while Brad Pitt was conspicuously absent from the ceremony. Zahara also minored in educational studies, pointing toward possible careers in advocacy, counselling, education, or nonprofit work.
The moment was consistent with a pattern Zahara has maintained in public for several years. When she joined her sorority at Spelman College in 2023, she introduced herself as “Zahara Marley Jolie” in a widely shared video. She made the same declaration at a mother-daughter luncheon just weeks before graduation, where she also paid tribute to her mother in a speech.
Zahara is not alone among the six Jolie-Pitt children in stepping back from the Pitt surname. Shiloh formally removed Pitt from her last name on her 18th birthday in June 2024, hiring her own lawyer and covering the legal costs herself. Youngest daughter Vivienne appeared credited only as Vivienne Jolie in the Playbill for the Broadway production of The Outsiders, which she worked on alongside Angelina. Son Maddox has long used Jolie on informal documents, with reports from 2021 indicating he intended to make the change legal, a move Angelina reportedly declined to encourage. Pax has similarly adopted Jolie in professional contexts.
All six children have distanced themselves from Brad Pitt following the couple’s 2016 split. Jolie adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002 and Zahara from Ethiopia in 2005. Pitt legally adopted both children in December 2005. The couple adopted Pax from Vietnam in 2007. Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne were born to the pair between 2006 and 2008. Jolie and Pitt married in 2014 after nearly a decade together.
Weeks before her graduation, Zahara described her relationship with her mother in a speech, saying her mother was “the most selfless, loving and understanding woman” she could call her mom, reflecting the closeness that has defined her public identity through her years at Spelman.
