diff --git a/gtsam/discrete/DiscreteConditional.cpp b/gtsam/discrete/DiscreteConditional.cpp
index 203f00f89..af4ad4495 100644
--- a/gtsam/discrete/DiscreteConditional.cpp
+++ b/gtsam/discrete/DiscreteConditional.cpp
@@ -317,7 +317,7 @@ std::string DiscreteConditional::markdown(const KeyFormatter& keyFormatter,
   ss << "|";
   const_iterator it;
   for(Key parent: parents()) {
-    ss << keyFormatter(parent) << "|";
+    ss << "*" << keyFormatter(parent) << "*|";
     pairs.emplace_back(parent, cardinalities_.at(parent));
   }
 
diff --git a/gtsam/discrete/tests/testDiscreteBayesNet.cpp b/gtsam/discrete/tests/testDiscreteBayesNet.cpp
index 1de45905a..de8e05edc 100644
--- a/gtsam/discrete/tests/testDiscreteBayesNet.cpp
+++ b/gtsam/discrete/tests/testDiscreteBayesNet.cpp
@@ -187,12 +187,13 @@ TEST(DiscreteBayesNet, markdown) {
       "|1|0.01|\n"
       "\n"
       " *P(Smoking|Asia)*:\n\n"
-      "|Asia|0|1|\n"
+      "|*Asia*|0|1|\n"
       "|:-:|:-:|:-:|\n"
       "|0|0.8|0.2|\n"
       "|1|0.7|0.3|\n\n";
   auto formatter = [](Key key) { return key == 0 ? "Asia" : "Smoking"; };
   string actual = fragment.markdown(formatter);
+  cout << actual << endl;
   EXPECT(actual == expected);
 }
 
diff --git a/gtsam/discrete/tests/testDiscreteConditional.cpp b/gtsam/discrete/tests/testDiscreteConditional.cpp
index 90da07cdc..b498b0541 100644
--- a/gtsam/discrete/tests/testDiscreteConditional.cpp
+++ b/gtsam/discrete/tests/testDiscreteConditional.cpp
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ TEST(DiscreteConditional, markdown_multivalued) {
       A | B = "2/88/10 2/20/78 33/33/34 33/33/34 95/2/3");
   string expected =
       " *P(a1|b1)*:\n\n"
-      "|b1|0|1|2|\n"
+      "|*b1*|0|1|2|\n"
       "|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|\n"
       "|0|0.02|0.88|0.1|\n"
       "|1|0.02|0.2|0.78|\n"
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ TEST(DiscreteConditional, markdown) {
   DiscreteConditional conditional(A, {B, C}, "0/1 1/3  1/1 3/1  0/1 1/0");
   string expected =
       " *P(A|B,C)*:\n\n"
-      "|B|C|T|F|\n"
+      "|*B*|*C*|T|F|\n"
       "|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|\n"
       "|-|Zero|0|1|\n"
       "|-|One|0.25|0.75|\n"