Two of Brad Pitt’s children are taking formal steps to further separate themselves from the actor by seeking to remove “Pitt” from their legal names.
Pitt’s daughter Zahara and son Maddox have filed public notices stating their plans to drop their father’s surname, according to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.
The notices appeared in the Los Angeles Daily Journal during June and July.
The Daily Mail said it has contacted representatives for both Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for comment.
“Petitioner Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt to Zahara Marley Jolie,” one of the notices states.
A second notice reads: “Petitioner Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt to Maddox Chivan Jolie.”
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children Zahara, center, and Maddox, right, have published notices indicating they intend to remove their father’s surname from their legal names.
Both notices allow anyone objecting to the proposed name changes to appear at upcoming court hearings. Zahara’s hearing is set for September 28, while Maddox’s is scheduled for September 14.
In the state of California, those seeking to legally change their name must publish an Order to Show Cause – a document requesting the name change – for four weeks in a row in a newspaper before their court date.
It comes a month after Zahara filed a petition requesting that her new name be Zahara Marley Jolie.
Maddox also filed to drop the actor’s last name in late May.
Zahara publicly dropped the last name three years ago when she joined a sorority at Spelman College.
‘My name is Zahara Marley Jolie. And [I] landed all the way from the Golden State in the city full of angels: Los Angeles, California,’ she appeared to say while introducing herself to sorority sisters, via People.
She also went by Zahara Marley Jolie during her graduation ceremony, which her father reportedly skipped, according to TMZ.
‘Nothing prevented him from showing up for her. Or ever visiting her. The day was about all she accomplished. Not whether he was willing to attend,’ a source close to Jolie told the publication.
However, multiple sources have exclusively spoken to the Daily Mail in defense of Pitt, insisting that he is not the absent father he has been portrayed as, and he wants a relationship with his six children.
Maddox was also credited as Maddox Jolie-Pitt while working as a production assistant on his mother’s biopic Maria.
Jolie and Pitt’s other children, Shiloh and Vivienne, have also stopped using the actor’s last name. It is not known if Pax has stopped using the name as well.
The former power couple had six children together during their time as ‘Brangelina’
Last year, Shiloh, who was born Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, legally changed her name to Shiloh Jolie shortly after turning 18.
At the time, in a statement shared with People, Shiloh’s lawyer Peter Levine said she ‘made an independent and significant decision following painful events,’ adding that she was ‘merely following legal process’ when publishing notice of the change.
One month after Shiloh filed to drop her father’s last name, a source told People that Pitt’s relationship with his older children remained strained.
‘He has virtually no contact with the adult kids. His engagement with the younger kids is more limited in recent months because of his filming schedule,’ the insider said.
In May 2024, Vivienne was credited as Vivienne Jolie, not Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, on the playbill for the Broadway musical The Outsiders.
The family divide was again brought to the forefront when Pitt’s mother, Jane Etta Pitt, died last year at the age of 84.
Sources revealed at the time that she had been cut off from her grandchildren for about nine years, and they did not get a chance to speak before her death.
Zahara has not been using her father’s last name for many years
‘The most gut-wrenching part is that Angelina kept the kids away from his parents, from their own grandparents,’ one insider alleged to the Daily Mail last August.
Pitt’s relationship with son Pax – who previously called his father a ‘world-class a**hole’ and accused him of making his younger siblings ‘tremble in fear’ – doesn’t seem to be any better.
A source previously told the Daily Mail how Pitt felt after the 22-year-old was pictured stumbling out of the Chateau Marmont last year, propped up by several friends.
‘He has zero concern with what Pax does or doesn’t do. [Pax’s] actions reflect who he is,’ the insider said. ‘Brad honestly considers his relationship with Pax unfixable,’ they added.
The source went on to say that the actor doesn’t appear to be planning any outreach to either of his adopted sons: ‘Pax and Maddox have made it abundantly clear how they feel, and Brad has nothing to say about either of them.’
As for his other children, the source said that Pitt ‘holds out hope that the others will one day come around. Time heals wounds.’
A source close to Jolie also hit back at her ex-husband at the time and said: ‘Brad continues to play the victim. His fractured relationship with his children is a direct result of how he has treated them.’
‘He should stop blaming others. If he wants to rebuild a relationship with the kids, he should acknowledge his own actions and make amends.’
After meeting on the set of the 2005 film Mr and Mrs Smith, Pitt and Jolie were seen as Hollywood’s ‘It’ couple during their long-term relationship.
A source previously told TMZ that Pitt thinks Jolie is keeping their children from seeing him
They married in August 2014 during a secret ceremony in the South of France and welcomed three children together during their romance: Shiloh in 2006 and twins Vivienne and Knox in 2008.
They also adopted two more, Zahara and Pax, and Pitt legally adopted the son that Angelina had adopted before they got together, Maddox.
But in 2016, it came to an explosive end after the pair got into an alleged physical altercation while on a private flight with their six children and Jolie later filed for divorce.
Jolie later claimed that Pitt ‘choked’ one of the children during the horrifying dispute and ‘struck’ another in the face, leaving her and the youngsters feeling like ‘hostages’ and cowering in fear under a blanket for hours until they landed.
She also alleged that he grabbed her by the head, slammed her against a wall, and violently shook her at one point during the flight – which resulted in her injuring her back and elbow.
Pitt’s representative called Jolie’s account ‘completely untrue’ to CNN at first, but then released an amended statement to the publication that read, ‘Angelina’s story continues to evolve each time she tells it.
‘Brad has accepted responsibility for what he did but will not for things he didn’t do. He has been on the receiving end of every type of personal attack and misrepresentation.
‘Thankfully, the various public authorities she has tried to use against him over the past six years have made their own independent decisions. Brad will continue to respond in court as he has consistently done.’
Since they split, the two stars have been embroiled in one of the most publicized legal battles in Hollywood history over custody of their children, as well as the winery that they once owned together.
In May 2021, after years of duking it out in court, Pitt and Jolie were officially granted joint custody of their six children, but one month later, the judge’s decision was thrown out.
