Angelina Jolie Says She’s In Awe Of Daughter Zahara: ‘Extraordinary African Woman’

Angelina Jolie threw so much love and praise for her 15-year-old daughter, Zahara Jolie-Pitt, for honoring her roots. The teenager was born in Ethiopia and was adopted by the Hollywood superstar as a baby.

The Oscar-winner adopted Zahara from a local orphanage in Addis Ababa with her then-partner Brad Pitt. This was in 2005 when Zahara was barely six months old and Jolie and Pitt’s relationship was just starting.

“My daughter is from Ethiopia, one of my children,” Jolie said while speaking with Uganda activist Vanessa Nakate on the voices of youth and activism. “And I have learned so much from her. 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.”

Some of Zahara’s other siblings have also been adopted. Maddox, Jolie’s eldest, is from Cambodia and is currently studying abroad. Pax, from Vietnam, was adopted around the same time as Zahara. Jolie has three biological children with Pitt, Shiloh and the twins – Knox and Vivienne.

Jolie also recently opened up about talking to her children about their birth and her advocacy for refugee kids with Vogue India.

“With my adopted children, I can’t speak of pregnancy, but I speak with much detail and love about the journey to find them and what it was like to look in their eyes for the first time,” she said. “All adopted children come with a beautiful mystery of a world that is meeting yours. When they are from another race and foreign land, that mystery, that gift, is so full,” she continued. “For them, they must never lose touch with where they came from. They have roots that you do not. Honor them. Learn from them. It’s the most amazing journey to share. They are not entering your world, you are entering each other’s worlds.”