Brad Pitt’s kids confirm they’re dropping dad’s surname
Brad Pitt’s kids confirm they’re dropping dad’s surname
Jacob Stolworthy Tue, July 14, 2026 at 10:06 AM UTC
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s kids are officially trying to change their name (Getty)
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s kids have confirmed they plan to drop the Fight Club actor’s name by taking out newspaper ads – a legal requirement in California.
Posting a public notice is a necessity under California law if you want to change your name, and court documents obtained by media outlets reveal that both Maddox, 24, and Zahara, 21, did exactly this four times weekly in June.
The ad urged anyone objecting to the name change to send a written opposition before the final hearing, which will take place in September.
If no opposition is received, the judge will rule in favour of the motion. The Independent has contacted Pitt, Jolie and the Superior Court of California for comment.
Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt and Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt filed name change court documents in April, and just weeks later, Zahara’s name was read as Zahara Marley Jolie at her graduation ceremony.
Her decision to drop Pitt goes back as early as November 2023, when she introduced herself as simply Zahara Marley Jolie in an introduction video for the Mu Pi chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at her university.
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Meanwhile, Maddox decided to be called Maddox Jolie in the credits for Angelina’s recent film Couture, on which he worked as an assistant director.
Angelina, 51, and Pitt, 62, who split in 2016 after more than a decade together, share six children: Maddox, 24; Pax, 22; Zahara, 21; Shiloh, 20; and twins Knox and Vivienne, 17.
Shiloh, a dancer and the former couple’s first biological child, was the first of the siblings to be granted a name change on their 18th birthday in 2024 and now goes by Shiloh Jolie.
In May 2024, Vivienne was also credited as only Vivienne Jolie, instead of Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, in a playbill for The Outsiders – a Broadway play she helped her mum produce.
The actor with children, Zahara and Maddox, at a New York film screening in 2024 (Getty)
The family divide came after a 2016 airplane incident in which Pitt allegedly got into a heated argument with his wife and children.
Following an FBI investigation into child abuse allegations after the incident, Pitt was cleared of all charges. However, a detailed account of what transpired on the private plane was made public record during the pair’s divorce proceedings.
According to the documents, Angelina told investigators that Pitt’s behaviour on a private flight from France to Los Angeles frightened their children, who were between the ages of eight and 15 at the time. The Maleficent actor alleged that Pitt lunged at one of their children and that she had to hold him back “in a choke hold.” She filed for divorce the day after the incident.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
