Brad Pitt’s family rift deepened when Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt filed court documents on May 28, 2026, to legally remove “Pitt” from his name, becoming the fourth of six children shared by Pitt and Angelina Jolie to publicly reject his father’s surname.
The filing, submitted by the 24-year-old, requests the complete removal of “Pitt” from his legal name. While the request remains pending judicial approval, recent precedent suggests a judge will likely approve it, given that his sister Shiloh successfully completed the same process.
The day after the filing became public, a source close to the actor revealed how heavily the latest blow has landed on Pitt, who remains devastated by the growing estrangement from his children.
Pitt Holds Out Hope for Reconciliation
The insider noted that the actor “still does hope and keeps the door open to eventual reconciliation, hopefully with all of them, but it is their decision. He has no power and he can’t force them.”
According to the same source, Pitt’s “biggest fear is to be permanently disconnected from the kids because he does want to find a way to make things right.” The actor worries that as time passes, reconciliation will only grow more difficult.
Maddox’s Quiet Professional Shift
The legal filing formalizes what Maddox had already been doing professionally. In the credits for his work on the Jolie-led film “Couture,” in which he served as an assistant director, Maddox removed his father’s last name. His updated name was featured in the film’s production notes, distributed to journalists at the drama’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025.
Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia, when she was a 26-year-old single mother. Born on August 5, 2001, Maddox was later adopted by Pitt after he and Jolie began their relationship. He went on to serve as executive producer on Jolie’s 2017 film “First They Killed My Father,” an adaptation of Loung Ung’s memoir about the Cambodian genocide. He later studied biochemistry at South Korea’s Yonsei University.
A Pattern Years in the Making
A striking pattern has emerged in the years since Pitt and Jolie split in 2016, with at least four of their children now publicly stepping away from their father’s surname in either legal filings, professional credits, or personal introductions.
Shiloh, born Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, filed to legally drop “Pitt” from her surname on her 18th birthday in May 2024. Her request was granted that August, and she has gone by Shiloh Jolie ever since.
That same month, her sister Vivienne was credited as “Vivienne Jolie” in the Playbill for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical “The Outsiders,” on which she worked alongside her mother as a producer’s assistant.
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. When she walked across the stage to accept her diploma, she was announced with the shortened name. Pitt was not present at the ceremony and reportedly did not reach out to Zahara beforehand or attempt to secure a ticket to attend.
Pitt and Jolie share six children in total: Maddox, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and 18-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.
Pitt has openly reflected on his shortcomings as a father. In a May 2017 interview, the actor confessed that his approach to parenting had been shaped by an outdated model he was still unlearning. “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, whose legal name is William Bradley 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 Maddox’s filing may well be just the latest chapter in a saga that began nearly a decade ago.
