At this point, it’s becoming a pattern. And honestly, it speaks volumes without anyone saying a word. And she’s not the first sibling to do it. Formerly Zahara Jolie-Pitt, 21, filed court documents in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 4th to legally remove “Pitt” from her last name. She’s asking for her new legal name to be Zahara Marley Jolie. No statement or explanation of the decision in the paperwork, just a quiet and deliberate legal move that says so much without saying anything at all.
The filing came just days after her older brother Maddox, 24, also filed to legally remove their father’s last name. Two siblings, within days of each other, making the same decision. It’s hard to look at that and not wonder what is actually going on behind the scenes.
Not Exactly a Surprise
For anyone who has been paying attention, this has been coming for a while. Zahara has been quietly distancing herself from the Pitt name in public for years now, long before any legal paperwork was filed.
When Zahara joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at Spelman College in 2023, she introduced herself simply as Zahara Marley Jolie. When she graduated from college, she went by just her mother’s last name then, too. The legal filing is really just catching up to what she had already been doing in real life. She’s just making it official this time.
Zahara did not provide any reasoning behind the name change in the paperwork, but it’s been reported that she and Brad have been estranged for years. Sources also noted that Brad was not present at Zahara’s college graduation and reportedly did not even contact her about attending the ceremony.
Third Sibling to Make This Move
Zahara is now the third of Angelina and Brad’s children to file to legally drop Pitt from their last name, following Maddox and Shiloh.
Shiloh legally filed to drop Pitt’s surname on her 18th birthday, which was granted in 2024. She has since professionally shortened her name to Shi Jolie. The report noted that she hired her own lawyer and paid for it herself, which is a detail that stuck with a lot of people when it first came out. Her choice wasn’t something being pushed on her. She made her choice independently.
Vivienne also dropped Pitt from her surname around the same time, though it’s unclear if that change is permanent. She went by Vivienne Jolie in the Playbill for The Outsiders, the Broadway musical her mom helped produce.
And now Maddox and Zahara in the same week. Jolie and Pitt have six children together: Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne. At this point, the majority of them have either legally dropped or publicly stopped using Brad’s last name.
The Bigger Picture
The actor’s divorce was finalized in December 2024, after their split in 2016, making it a nearly decade-long legal battle. The fallout from all of that clearly extended well beyond just the two of them. Their kids have watched and lived through all of it, and their actions speak for themselves.
Nobody in the Jolie-Pitt family has made any public comment about any of these filings. Angelina hasn’t addressed it, Brad hasn’t addressed it, and none of the kids have spoken about it publicly. But when three of your six children file paperwork to remove your last name, two of them being days apart, the silence ends up saying more than any statement ever could.