Vivienne Jolie-Pitt,the 18-year-old daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, has petitioned a Los Angeles court to remove her father's surname. This legal move follows a similar trend among her older siblings who are distancing themselves from the actor.
Vivienne's November 2 hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court
Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt has formally requested to transition her legal name to Vivienne Marcheline Jolie. According to the Daily Mail, the petition filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court cites "personal" reasons for the change, with a court hearing scheduled for November 2 to finalize the matter.
This legal action appears to be the culmination of a public disancing process. In May 2024, Vivienne notably omitted the Pitt surname from the Playbill program for the Broadway play The Outsiders, a production where she served as a producer alongside her mother, Angelina Jolie .
Zahara and Maddox follow the path to 'Jolie'
The move by Vivienne is part of a broader familial shift, as her older siblings have taken nearly identical steps.. As reported by the Daily Mail, Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt, 21 , and Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt, 24, both published legal notices in the Los Angeles Daily Journal to announce their intentions to drop the Pitt name.
The legal timeline for these changes is tight, with Maddox's hearing set for September 14 and Zahara's scheduled for September 28 . Zahara has already integrated this change into her public identity; she reportedly used the name Zahara Marley Jolie during her graduation from Spelman College three years ago, an event that Brad Pitt did not attend.
From Shiloh's 2023 change to Pax's 2020 accusations
The trend began earlier with Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, 20, who completed her legal name change to Shiloh Jolie last year. At the time, attorney Peter Levine described the move as an "independent and significant decision" made by Shiloh following "painful events."
While some siblings have used the courts, others have used their voices. Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, 22, has been the most vocal critic of his father. In a 2020 statement, Pax referred to Brad Pitt as a "world-class a**hole" and claimed that the actor caused his younger siblings to "tremble in fear." These tensions highlight a deep-seated emotional rift that predates the current wave of legal filings.
The 'deeply painful' rift since the Mr. & Mrs. Smith era
The disintegration of the family unit follows a marriage that lasted from 2014 to 2019, after the couple first met on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2004. The subsequent divorce and custody battles have turned the children's upbringing into a public spectacle of legal conflict.
The perspectives on this estrangement remain polarized. According to the Daily Mail,sources close to Brad Pitt describe the situation as "deeply painful" and suggest that Angelina Jolie's influence in the matter is the "ultimate betrayal." Conversely,other sources maintain that Brad Pitt desires a relationship with all six of his children and is not the absent figure he is often portrayed to be in the media.
The missing filings from Pax and Knox
Despite the wave of petitions, two of the six children have not yet made formal legal moves to change their names. While Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt has expressed extreme hostility toward his father, there has been no public filing to drop the Pitt surname to date.
Similarly, the status of Knox, Vivienne's twin brother born in 2008, remains unknown. It is unclear if Knox intends to follow his siblings' lead or if he maintains a different relationship with Brad Pitt. Whether these name changes are coordinated efforts or individual reactions to the family's history remains a point of speculation.
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