Brad Pitt suffers another heartbreak as son Maddox drops his surname

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s adopted son Maddox Jolie-Pitt has officially filed to drop the actor’s last name.

The Daily Mail can confirm that Maddox, 24, requested to legally remove ‘Pitt’ from his surname on Thursday, changing his full name to Maddox Chivan Jolie, and listed his reason as ‘personal.’

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. 

In a heartbreaking blow to the Oscar winner, who has been estranged from his children, Maddox has joined several of his siblings in distancing themselves from the Pitt name, following his sister Shiloh’s, 20, legal name change last year.  

His other sisters Zahara, 21, and Vivienne, 17, have also informally dropped the name. 

Pitt, 62, and Jolie, 50, were married from 2014 to 2019, but their relationship came to a tumultuous end years before their divorce was finalized. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Pitt’s representatives for comment.  

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s 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 ᴀssistant, was credited as Maddox Jolie-Pitt.

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In addition to Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne, Jolie and Pitt also share Pax, 22, and Vivienne’s twin Knox, 17.

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.

‘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.

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

Maddox 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

‘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.

A year prior, Zahara, then a Spelman College student and sorority member of Alpha Kappa Mu Pi, introduced herself without using Pitt’s surname.

‘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 said in the clip, shared by Essence.