Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s eldest child, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, has taken a significant step by choosing to officially remove Pitt from his last name.
According to the Daily Mail, the 24-year-old Maddox submitted a request on Thursday to legally adopt the name Maddox Chivan Jolie, citing ‘personal’ reasons for the change.
Maddox had already begun using the shortened name earlier this year. In February, he was credited as Maddox Jolie, not Maddox Jolie-Pitt, in the closing credits of his mother’s film, Couture.
This development adds to the challenges faced by the acclaimed actor, as Maddox, along with several siblings, has been moving away from the Pitt surname. This follows his sister Shiloh, who legally altered her name last year at the age of 20.
Sisters Zahara, 21, and Vivienne, 17, have also chosen to drop the Pitt name informally.
Pitt, now 62, and Jolie, 50, were married between 2014 and 2019, though their relationship had already deteriorated before their divorce was finalized.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Pitt’s representatives for comment.
Brad Pitt, 62, and Angelina Jolie’s, 50, adopted son Maddox Jolie-Pitt has officially filed to drop the actor’s last name; Pitt seen in 2025
The Daily Mail can confirm that Maddox filed for the name change on Thursday listing his reason as ‘personal’; Maddox seen with Jolie and Pitt in 2013
The couple called it quits following a volatile incident on a private flight in 2016 and years of alleged abuse, which Pitt has denied.
Previously, on Jolie’s biopic, Maria, about legendary opera singer Maria Callas, Maddox, who worked as a production assistant, was credited as Maddox Jolie-Pitt.
In addition to Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne, Jolie and Pitt also share Pax, 22, and Vivienne’s twin Knox, 17.
In a lawsuit Jolie file against the FBI in 2022, after they closed the investigation into her ex-husband without making an arrest, the actress claimed that Pitt fought with Maddox on the plane and poured beer on her.
Jolie claimed that he ‘physically and verbally assaulted’ her and their children while flying on a private plane.
She claimed that during the flight Pitt allegedly put his hands on their oldest son, Maddox, then 15, and struck him – something the actor has denied.
The FBI had cleared Pitt of any wrongdoing in the incident, which happened during a private jet flight, falling under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Days after, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt and asked for full custody of their kids.
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.
‘Shiloh Jolie did not take out an “ad” announcing any name change, and any press reporting that is inaccurate,’ Levine clarified, per People.
Maddox informally dropped the surname in February, when he was listed in the end credits of his mother’s movie, Couture, as Maddox Jolie, rather than Maddox Jolie-Pitt; Seen in 2019
He has joined several of his siblings in distancing themselves from the Pitt name, following sister Shiloh’s, 20, legal name change; Jolie pictured with Shiloh (R) and her other daughter Zahara in 2021
Maddox’s other sisters Zahara and Vivienne, 17, have also informally dropped the name; Jolie and Vivienne seen in 2024
‘As Shiloh’s attorney, I am required to publish a legal notice because the law in California requires that of anyone who wants to change their name. That legal notice was published in the Los Angeles Times, as is required.’
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 shared.
In May 2024, Vivienne was credited as Vivienne Jolie, not Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, on the playbill for The Outsiders, the Broadway musical.
Meanwhile Zahara recently ditched Pitt’s name again as she graduated from Spelman College.
Her name was read at the ceremony as Zahara Marley Jolie, rather than as the hyphenated Jolie-Pitt.
Pitt skipped the graduation, 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.
Pitt and Jolie were married from 2014 to 2019. They called it quits following a volatile incident on a private flight in 2016 and years of alleged abuse, which Pitt has denied; Seen 2008
In a 2022 lawsuit against the FBI, claimed that Pitt fought with Maddox on the plane; Seen with Maddox in 2019
Jolie adopted Maddox from an orphanage in Cambodia in 2002. Pitt went on to adopt him after he started dating Jolie in 2005; The trio pictured in 2010
However, multiple sources have spoken to the Daily Mail exclusively 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 kids.
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 Jane had been heartbreakingly cut off from Pitt’s kids for about nine years, and they did not get a chance to speak before her death.
‘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.
Sources close to Jolie have hit back in the past, with one claiming ‘Brad continues to play the victim. His fractured relationship with his children is a direct result of how he has treated them.’
Jolie adopted Maddox from an orphanage in Cambodia in 2002. Pitt went on to adopt him after he started dating Jolie in 2005.
