While Angelina Jolie loves all six of her children deeply, calling them her “best friends,” she seems to have a special bond with eldest daughter Zahara. She adopted her as 6-month-old baby in July 2005 from Ethiopia, becoming the actress’ second child behind son Maddox, whom she adopted from Cambodia in 2002.
“I have learned so much from her,” Angelina gushed about Zahara during a July 2020 Time 100 Talk. “She is my family, but she is an extraordinary African woman and her connection to her country, her continent, is her own, and it’s something I only stand back in awe of.”
Angelina is making sure to raise her daughter to be strong and close to her roots. In 2009, while on a humanitarian trip to Kenya, Angelia took Zahara and her sister Shiloh on a two-day trip to Ethiopia. It was “the first time Zahara had been back home since her adoption,” a friend told People. “The trip was about keeping up that culture for her.”
Ten years later, Angelina brought Zahara and Shiloh back to the country, where the teens met Ethiopia’s first female President, Sahle-Work Zewde, during a New Years’ vacation in late 2019. The young ladies and the leader reportedly discussed education for girls in the nation, as well as Ethiopian culture and history.
Angelina has said that her favorite noise is the “sound of Zahara’s laugh,” the actress told Hello magazine in 2017. “She is one of those people who laughs with her whole body. Completely open and full of joy.”
Over the years, Zahara has grown into quite the fashion icon. Unlike her siblings, who prefer to wear more casual clothes to events with their famous mom, Zahara is always dressed to the nines. She has a girly-girl side where she prefers gorgeous gowns to pants and styles her hair in long braids or updos.
Even when Angelina brought four of her kids — Zahara, Shiloh and brothers Pax and Knox — to the elegant gourmet seafood restaurant La Girafe in Paris in July 2021, it was Zahara who dressed appropriately for such a high-end eatery. While her brothers and sister wore casual pants with either sweaters or hoodies, the teen killed it in a stunning bright green dress with colorful prints on it. She even accessorized with a chic magenta handbag. We can’t wait to watch Zahara keep growing up into the lovely young lady she’s becoming.
Scroll down for the most recent photos of Zahara Jolie-Pitt.