It has been a milestone-filled year for Zahara Marley Jolie. After celebrating her 21st birthday in January and graduating from college in May, she has now taken another significant step by filing to legally remove her father’s surname from her name.
According to court documents obtained by CBC News, Zahara submitted an application on June 5 to officially change her name to Zahara Marley Jolie. Just days earlier, her older brother, 24-year-old Maddox Chivan Jolie, also filed paperwork seeking to remove Pitt from his name. Their younger sibling, Shiloh, similarly dropped Pitt from her surname in 2024.
Zahara had reportedly stopped using Pitt’s last name informally some time ago, but the legal filing has once again drawn attention to the family’s relationship dynamics.
The Jolie-Pitt family has remained under public scrutiny since Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt began their relationship in 2005. Interest only intensified following their highly publicized and contentious separation in 2016.
The former couple’s divorce proceedings stretched over eight years before a settlement was reached. During that period, Jolie accused Pitt of abusive behavior during a private jet incident, alleging that he grabbed her by the head and shook her, and that he choked one of their children and struck another when they attempted to defend her. Pitt’s representatives denied the allegations. The FBI later reviewed the incident and stated that it did not pursue further investigation.
In November 2016, Jolie and Pitt reached an agreement that granted Jolie sole custody of their six children, who were between eight and 15 years old at the time. The arrangement also included ongoing therapeutic visits between the children and Pitt.
Pitt has spoken openly about his past struggles with alcohol and his commitment to sobriety. He has said that his efforts to stop drinking began in 2016 and has credited Alcoholics Anonymous with helping him remain sober for nearly ten years.
Despite those efforts, there have been few public signs of reconciliation between Pitt and his children. He has not been photographed or seen publicly with any of them for several years. Meanwhile, Jolie frequently attends red-carpet events with her children and often speaks about them in media interviews.
CBC News contacted Pitt’s representatives for comment on the latest name-change filings but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Harnaik Singh Rathor is the Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of StudioX News Canada, Canada's multilingual digital news network serving diaspora communities across 44 languages. With a background in media production, public relations, and multicultural communications, he founded StudioX Film and TV Corporation to bridge the gap between mainstream Canadian media and the country's diverse immigrant communities. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), RTDNA Canada, CPRS Vancouver, Unifor, NEPMCC, and the Canada Freelance Union. Based in Surrey, British Columbia. | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harnaiksinghrathor/ | Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/harnaiksinghrathor | Email: editor@studioxnews.ca
