Actor Brad Pitt is facing another painful chapter in his ongoing estrangement from his children, after his eldest son filed legal paperwork to remove “Pitt” from his surname entirely.
Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt, 24, filed court documents requesting his legal name be changed to Maddox Chivan Jolie on May 28, 2026, making him the fourth of Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s six children to publicly reject their father’s famous last name. The petition remains pending, though approval appears likely given that his sister Shiloh successfully completed the same process.
A source close to the “F1” star said that following news of the filing, the Hollywood A-lister is devastated by the latest blow to his fractured relationship with his children.
Maddox’s Quiet Professional Shift
The legal filing represents an official step that Maddox had already taken in his professional life. He dropped his father’s surname in the credits for “Couture,” a film led by Jolie in which he worked as an assistant director. Production notes distributed to journalists at the drama’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025 reflected his updated name.
Jolie adopted Maddox, born on August 5, 2001, from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia, when she was a 26-year-old single mother. Pitt, whose legal name is William Bradley Pitt, adopted Maddox after beginning his relationship with Jolie. Maddox served as executive producer on Jolie’s 2017 film “First They Killed My Father,” an adaptation of Loung Ung’s memoir about the Cambodian genocide, and later studied biochemistry at South Korea’s Yonsei University.
A Pattern Years in the Making
The pattern of distancing from their father’s surname has emerged across the family in the years following Pitt and Jolie’s 2016 split. At least four of the former couple’s six children have now stepped away from the name through legal filings, professional credits, or personal introductions.
Shiloh, born Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, filed to legally drop “Pitt” on her 18th birthday in May 2024. A judge granted her request that August, and she now goes by Shiloh Jolie.
Zahara has been quietly using the name Zahara Marley Jolie since 2023, when she introduced herself that way after joining the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Spelman College. She was announced with the shortened name when she walked across the stage to accept her diploma. Pitt did not attend the ceremony and reportedly did not reach out to Zahara beforehand or attempt to secure a ticket.
Vivienne was credited as “Vivienne Jolie” in the Playbill for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical “The Outsiders” that same month, on which she worked alongside her mother as a producer’s assistant.
Pitt and Jolie share six children in total: Maddox, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and 18-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.
Pitt Holds Out Hope for Reconciliation
Sources say Pitt has not abandoned hope for repairing his relationships with his children, despite the mounting evidence they want little to do with him publicly. The insider noted that the actor still hopes and keeps the door open to eventual reconciliation, hopefully with all of them, but it is their decision, and he has no power to force them.
The actor’s biggest fear is to be permanently disconnected from the kids because he does want to find a way to make things right, the same source added. As time passes, the insider said, Pitt worries reconciliation will only grow more difficult.
In a May 2017 interview, Pitt openly reflected on his failings as a parent. “I grew up with a Father-knows-best/war mentality — the father is all-powerful, super strong — instead of really knowing the man and his own self-doubt and struggles,” he said at the time. “And it’s hit me smack in the face with our divorce: I gotta be more. I gotta be more for them. I have to show them. And I haven’t been great at it.”
Interestingly, name changes are nothing new in this family. Jolie herself — born Angelina Jolie Voight — dropped her father Jon Voight’s surname early in her career amid their own well-publicized estrangement. Pitt ditched his middle name when he arrived in Hollywood.
For now, the divide between Pitt and his children appears to be widening rather than healing — and as first reported by TMZ, Maddox’s filing may well be just the latest chapter in a saga that began nearly a decade ago.