Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s eldest son Maddox reportedly files to drop Pitt’s surname: Here's what we know
Maddox is reportedly the latest Jolie-Pitt child to drop the Pitt surname
Dubai: According to multiple reports, 24-year-old Maddox Jolie-Pitt, the eldest son of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, has filed legal documents requesting that 'Pitt' be removed from his last name. If approved by a judge, he would reportedly be known as Maddox Chivan Jolie.
The former couple, who share six children, separated in 2016 after more than a decade together. Their divorce proceedings stretched on for years before being finalized in 2024.
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While neither Jolie nor Pitt has publicly commented on the reported name-change request, signs of Maddox distancing himself from the surname had already surfaced earlier this year. He was credited as “Maddox Jolie” while working as an assistant director on Jolie’s film Couture, rather than using the full Jolie-Pitt surname that had appeared in previous credits.
Maddox, who was adopted by Jolie from Cambodia in 2002, later became Brad Pitt’s adopted son after Pitt formally adopted him and his sister Zahara in 2006. The surname Jolie-Pitt was legally granted to the children that same year.
He is not the first of the former couple’s six children to publicly distance themselves from the Pitt surname. In 2024, daughter Shiloh Jolie legally changed her name from Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt to Shiloh Jolie after turning 18. Meanwhile, Zahara Jolie has introduced herself publicly as Zahara Marley Jolie, and Vivienne Jolie was credited as Vivienne Jolie in promotional materials for the Broadway production of The Outsiders.
The reported name change comes nearly two years after Jolie and Pitt finalised their lengthy divorce proceedings. The former couple, once among Hollywood’s most closely watched pairs, began their relationship in 2005 after meeting on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. They married in 2014 before Jolie filed for divorce in 2016.
At the time of publication, according to TMZ the request to change Maddox’s name had reportedly not yet been approved by a court. Representatives for Pitt declined to comment on the filing, while representatives for Jolie had not publicly responded to reports.
