Overview
- Late May 2026 multiple outlets reported that Maddox has submitted a formal petition to remove the surname Pitt and be legally known as Maddox Chivan Jolie.
- Maddox has already used Jolie in professional credits, including on projects tied to his mother, and the petition would make that usage his legal name.
- The move follows years of mounting distance between Maddox and Brad Pitt that sources tie to the parents’ 2016 split and a subsequent FBI inquiry that was later closed.
- Accounts of why contact broke down differ sharply in media reporting, with anonymous sources alternately accusing Angelina Jolie of alienating the children or defending her version that Brad’s behavior caused the rift.
- Maddox’s petition is the latest public sign of a family trend—several siblings have recently stopped using Pitt publicly—and it could further entrench the children’s separate public identities from their father.