Daddy-daughter issues? Family terror? Or tangled communication? Here's what's
really going on for Brad Pitt and daughter Zahara beyond the headlines.
Sending your kids off to
college is emotional for every parent. And when Zahara started her journey at Spelman College,
her mom, Angelina Jolie, was right by her side. The actor was seen dropping
her daughter off on campus and holding back tears while telling the VP of student affairs,
"I'm going to start crying if I talk about today.
I haven't started crying yet so hopefully, I can hold it together."
"Miss Jolie, can you tell us — how does it feel?"
"I'm gonna start crying."
Though Zahara's dad Brad Pitt wasn't seen on campus, that doesn't mean he wasn't supportive
of his daughter. While promoting the film "Bullet Train," the actor told Vanity Fair,
"I'm so proud of her. She's so smart. 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. I'm so proud."
"Yeah, that's beautiful. It's really beautiful."
The holidays are often
a special time to spend with family. But after Pitt and Jolie's divorce battle began,
those family milestones were never the same. In 2019, a source told Us Weekly that Brad
was looking forward to celebrating Christmas Eve with his children. But
according to divorce docs, a monitor was required to be present during the visit.
The insider further alleged that Zahara wasn't planning to be there,
despite attending the previous year. His sons Maddox and Pax were also rumored to
have skipped the celebration due to not being on speaking terms with the actor.
Instead, Brad was only able to see his three youngest children, Shiloh, and twins Knox and
Vivienne. Still despite the snub, Brad remains his kids' biggest fan. A source told E! News,
"He supports his kids and what makes them happy. They are old enough now where they
can make decisions and he doesn't stand in the way. He's encouraged them to be whoever
they want to be. He wouldn't ask for anything different."
Before her adoption in 2005, Zahara was living
in Ethiopia. Her biological mother told Reuters that she wasn't able to provide for her baby due
to a lack of money and other resources. Within a few months, she was out of the picture, and
Zahara's grandmother placed her up for adoption. Jolie adopted her when she was just 7 months old.
Pitt legally adopted Zahara in 2006 and immediately connected
with her. As he told Parade in 2011,
"I have seen children suffer far beyond what we experience
in America — like our oldest daughter [Zahara]. If she had not been adopted
I know she would not be alive. […] I cannot imagine life without her."
"The kids, yeah. The kids, they're everything."
Dad life was far from the public's expectations for a once-young Hollywood playboy,
but Pitt fully embraced it. He told V Magazine back in 2007,
"[Fatherhood] is the funniest, most lovely thing I've ever taken on. And the biggest
pain in the a– as well. And I couldn't go back. I couldn't imagine it any other way."
When Pitt adopted
Maddox and Zahara, a lot about his life had to change. And before long,
he learned that hangovers and parenting didn't quite mesh. In 2007, the actor revealed a scary
moment with Zahara that made him reevaluate his lifestyle, telling Total Film magazine,
"I'd had a couple of beers and my daughter Zahara had this piece of ice that had been dropped on the
floor, and she was putting it in her mouth and began to choke on it, and that was it."
"Our little one Zahara said, 'Actually, Daddy, it's not alright.' "
Pitt knew he needed to be a more alert and present parent. And over the years,
he did anything to make his daughters happy. Revealing that Pitt rarely
said "no" to their girls, Jolie told the Radio Times in 2014,
​​"Brad [thinks] girls can do no wrong. He's mush in their hands."
When he wasn't
busy filming, Pitt was pulling daddy duty with his daughters.
In 2015, paparazzi caught the proud dad at a soccer game, cheering on Shiloh and Zahara. He
was also snapped outside Zahara's school, dropping her off for the day and then picking her up.
Maybe most surprisingly, instead of private lessons at home,
Zahara and her siblings attended school like regular kids — something Brad had
reportedly always pushed for. In 2017, the exes agreed that their
children would continue their classroom education, with a source telling Us Weekly,
"Brad wants the kids to be in a school setting, and not isolated being homeschooled."
During a divorce,
children can feel completely stuck in the middle. And in the case of Jolie and Pitt's 2016 battle,
their six children reportedly felt the need to take sides.
"You turned my own kids against me."
Even after their formal split, the two exes reportedly still don't see eye to eye — and
neither do the kids. In 2022, a source told OK! magazine that while Shiloh has reportedly remained
neutral, her brothers and sister remain loyal to their mother. The insider noted,
"Maddox, Pax, and Zahara don't really see both sides of the picture. They're
Team Angelina and essentially kicked their dad to the curb years ago."
In 2021, Maddox even testified against Pitt during a custody hearing. And his account
revealed his damaged relationship with his father. As a source told Us Weekly,
"He doesn't use Pitt as his last name on documents that aren't legal and instead uses Jolie. Maddox
wants to legally change his last name to Jolie, which Angelina has said she doesn't support."
But while the rest of her siblings seem set on cutting Pitt out of their lives, Shiloh appears
to be the glue that just might help mend the kids' relationship with the actor. An insider told OK!,
"She's encouraging them to have a relationship
with their dad because he's always been there for them."