The ongoing public estrangement within one of Hollywood’s most high-profile families reached a significant milestone over the weekend. Zahara Marley Jolie, the 21-year-old daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, officially graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday, May 17, 2026
While completing her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, Zahara used the high-profile academic platform to send a clear signal regarding her family alignment. When walking across the stage to receive her diploma during the institution’s 139th commencement ceremony, she was introduced to the audience strictly as “Zahara Marley Jolie,” completely omitting her father’s surname.
Intriguingly, while the official printed commencement program still listed her full legal name as “Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt,” the explicit audio announcement underscored her personal choice to distance herself from the actor’s legacy.
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A Divided Family Milestone
The celebration highlighted the stark contrast in parental involvement that has characterized the siblings’ lives since their parents’ highly publicized separation in September 2016.
Maternal Support System: Angelina Jolie was present in the audience to celebrate her daughter’s academic achievement, accompanied by Zahara’s brothers: Maddox, Pax, and Knox.
The Paternal Absence: Brad Pitt was notably absent from the historic Black women’s college campus. Reports published by TMZ claim that the F1 star was entirely excluded from the planning phases and was never informed about or provided tickets to the event.
The Pattern of Estrangement Across the Siblings
Zahara’s choice of wording during the graduation ceremony does not stand as an isolated incident. Instead, it marks the continuation of a calculated trend of identity decoupling across the Jolie-Pitt children.
Zahara first publicly dropped “Pitt” in late 2023 during her initiation into the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority at Spelman, shouting out her name to the chapter without the paternal surname. She reinforced this stance during a recent keynote speech at a regional foundation brunch, praising her mother as her ultimate “role model” and an “understanding woman” while completely ignoring Pitt’s role in her upbringing.
Furthermore, several of her siblings have initiated identical, formal steps to shed their father’s name. Following their parents’ final legal divorce settlement in December 2024, siblings Maddox, Vivienne, and Shiloh have all actively transitioned to using only “Jolie” in their professional, public, and legal ventures. This united front comes as Jolie and Pitt continue to battle in a multi-million-dollar court dispute over their French winery estate, Château Miraval.