Brad Pitt’s ongoing family rift has surfaced again, with daughter Zahara appearing to overcome an important legal step in her effort to drop his surname.
Records obtained by Fox News show that Zahara Pitt’s request was published in the Los Angeles Journal on four separate dates: June 16, 23, 30 and July 7.
Under California rules, an ‘Order to Show Cause’ typically has to be published before a court can formally approve a name change, and Zahara’s notice appears to satisfy that requirement ahead of her scheduled hearing.
Zahara, 21, has already been publicly using the name Zahara Marley Jolie in recent years, including at Spelman College and at sorority and charity events, where she has been introduced without Pitt’s surname.
Her brother Maddox has also recently taken the same legal step, with reports that he, too, published the required newspaper notice as part of a separate petition to drop Pitt from his surname.
If the request is granted, her legal name will move from Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt to Zahara Marley Jolie. The development comes after her sister Shiloh also changed her name in 2024.
Now 21, Zahara is seeking to legally separate her identity from Pitt’s surname and instead use Zahara Jolie, taking the last name of her mother, Angelina Jolie.
She graduated from Spelman College in May with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and sources around the family said she had been introduced onstage as Zahara Marley Jolie during the ceremony.
The distance between Pitt and his children has largely been linked to the widely reported 2016 private jet incident.
According to The Telegraph, Pitt was accused during that flight of verbally and physically attacking Jolie as well as some of their six children.
Although the FBI did not bring criminal charges, the episode was followed by Jolie filing for divorce, while the children are said to have become largely estranged from him.
Pitt and Jolie started divorce proceedings in 2016, and their divorce was finalized in December 2024 after years of legal wrangling.
At the time, Jolie cited ‘irreconcilable differences’ as the reason for her split from Pitt, and requested sole custody of all six children they share.
Despite the tension with Pitt, Zahara has remained publicly close to her mother.
Back in April, she appeared as the special guest at a mother-daughter brunch hosted by the Pearls of Purpose Foundation in Atlanta.
During her speech, she reflected on their bond, saying: “When asked to speak with you all today on the value of mother-daughter relationships, it felt challenging to find the words.
“Not challenging because I don’t value it, but because my mom and I have a unique, almost kindred, relationship that can be hard to put into words.”
She praised Jolie for ‘raising us on the values of helping others, being kind, and always striving for growth’, adding that she was ‘grateful to have had a role model to show me what it looks like to be a decent human being.’
Zahara concluded by saying she was ‘the most selfless, loving, and understanding woman who I get to call my mom’.
A representative for Brad Pitt has been approached for comment.