If you ever needed a sign that Angelina Jolie’s brood is all grown up, just look to Zahara Jolie-Pitt_._This week Angelina and Brad Pitt’s 18-year-old daughter became an official member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Spelman College in Atlanta – the first national Black sorority.
But it’s the speech she gave in the induction ceremony which has got everyone talking. As she introduced herself on stage, Zahara omitted her dad’s last name. In a video shared by Essence, she says ‘My name is Zahara Marley Jolie!’ She followed the introduction with a speech, in which she said ‘Coming all the way from the Golden State in the city that is full of angels, Los Angeles, California … I am this line’s number seven.’
In 2022, Brad told reporters he was 'so proud' of Zahara after learning she was going to be attending Spelman College. ‘She's so smart,’ he said. ‘She's going to flourish even more at college. It's an exciting and beautiful time to find her own way and pursue her interests.’
However, many people interpreted Zahara’s speech as a snub to Brad. ‘I wasn’t gonna say anything, but I definitely peeped that Zahara left Pitt off her last name,’ one user wrote on X.
Another asked ‘She dropped Pitt’s last name when she introduced herself. She called herself Zahara Marley Jolie. I wonder if she’s dropped it legally?’
Others simply praised Angelina for encouraging Zahara, who was adopted from an orphanage in Ethiopia when she was seven months old, to embrace her Black heritage. One user wrote on X ‘Zahara has such a bright future ahead of her. Angelina (yes, all by herself) did a phenomenal job raising this young lady and providing every single opportunity for her to learn and live life to its fullest.’
This comes after much speculation that Brad has a complicated relationship with his six children, Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Vivienne, and Knox. According to US Weekly, the relationship between Brad and Maddox has been strained since 2016 after Brad allegedly got into an altercation with Maddox during a private jet flight to Los Angeles. It was that incident that reportedly led Angelina to file for divorce from Brad. Since, the former couple have been embroiled in a messy divorce proceeding, including a famous dispute over their vineyard in the south of France.
Currently, Angelina has sole custody of their children, while Brad has visitation rights. She previously told Vogue that her role as a mother has helped her get through tough times in her life. ‘I think, recently, I would’ve gone under in a much darker way had I not wanted to live for them,' she said in the interview. 'They’re better than me, because you want your children to be. Of course I’m the mother, and hopefully that safe place for them and that stability. But I’m also the one that they laugh at—and I see them taking over so many different aspects of our family.'