The movements in recent months of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children confirm that their relationship with the actor is nonexistent and that they want to get rid of everything that once united them. And that includes the Pitt surname. Little by little, each of them — whether only publicly or through a legal procedure — has been renouncing the paternal surname. The last to do so legally was Maddox, the eldest son of the former couple, aged 25. According to public court records accessed by People magazine, a judge from the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled this Monday, September 14, that the young man officially changes from Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt to Maddox Chivan Jolie.
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The eldest of the family filed the legal name change request for the first time last May 28 and, since then, has had to continue with the bureaucratic processes required for this type of change. In the State of California, this procedure is neither expensive nor has many obstacles, but a series of requirements must be met. One of them is the obligation to publish the name change request in a local newspaper in English, publicly and for four consecutive weeks. Both Maddox and Zahara, aged 21, published it last July.
Media outlets such as USA Today and TMZ reported at the end of May that Maddox had already started the paperwork, citing “personal” reasons at all times. The young man, born in August 2001 in Cambodia and first adopted by Jolie in 2002 and later by Pitt, had already been seen informally using only the Jolie surname in the credits of films like Couture or Maria, starring his mother and in which he worked as an assistant director.
The next to officially drop the surname will be Zahara, whose process began in June, a few days after her brother. The young woman published the request in the Los Angeles Daily Journal on June 16, 23, and 30 and July 7. Her hearing, if no objections are raised, is scheduled for next September 28. Zahara is the third of the six children of the former couple known as Brangelina, and was adopted in Ethiopia in the summer of 2005, seven months after birth. At an event at her university, she already introduced herself to her classmates as Zahara Marley Jolie.
Since the actor couple officially separated in 2016 — although it took them almost a decade to legally divorce — the six children have always sided with their mother. But the only one to do so publicly was Pax, on his social media. “You have proven to be a terrible and despicable person,” he said in 2023. “You have turned the lives of those around me into a real hell. You can tell yourself and the world whatever you want, but someday the truth will come out. So happy Father’s Day to this fucking horrible human being!” he added. Despite the accusations, he still keeps Pitt in his surname. But not because of his father, rather due to a good relationship with the paternal branch of the family.
Shiloh, the first biological daughter of the marriage, was also the first to formally ask the court to be surnamed only Jolie. And she achieved it just a few months after turning of age in 2024. The young woman’s lawyer explained at that time that the decision had been made “independently and meaningfully after painful events.” The next will be the younger children, the twins Knox and Vivienne, who reached the age of majority last July 12. Although they have not yet started the procedures for it, they have also publicly shown their interest in removing Pitt from their lives.
Brangelina broke up in 2016. According to the actress’s version, her former partner physically assaulted two of their children during a private plane trip from France to Los Angeles. “Pitt’s history of physical abuse towards Jolie began long before the family’s plane trip in September 2016,” one of Jolie’s lawyers publicly stated in a complaint the actress filed against the actor in 2024. And added: “This flight marked the first time he also directed his physical abuse towards the children.” After their 12 years of relationship, today only resentments, legal disputes, and the vineyards in France where they got married remain, which continue to be a headache and a source of legal confrontation between them.
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