By the time Zahara Jolie-Pitt was one, she was already a globe-trotting citizen. In November 2005, a 10-month-old Zahara arrived in Tokyo in the arms of Brad Pitt, with Angelina Jolie trailing close behind with Maddox Jolie-Pitt in tow, as seen above during a trip to Japan to promote “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” A few months later, the family jetted off to France, where they were seen spending quality time at a park in Paris. Later in 2006, Zahara enjoyed a boat ride in her father’s lap during a trip to India.
She was living a life her biological family could never have pictured just months earlier. Zahara was born to a rape victim who ran from home after struggling with breastfeeding, leaving her child in the care of her mother in a small village south of Addis Ababa. “My baby was on the verge of death. She became malnourished and was even unable to cry,” Mentwabe Dawit told Reuters in 2007. “I was desperate and decided to run away, rather than see my child dying.”
Unable to care for Zahara, her grandmother put her up for adoption. “Her motive was to save the child from dying, which I fully understand,” she said. Dawit is grateful for the life Zahara went on to have. And so was Pitt, who became more interested in the root causes of Africa’s issues thanks to his daughter. “[I] imagine what her life could have been,” he told Newsweek in 2006.
