Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s daughter Zahara and son Maddox have taken another step towards officially dropping Pitt from their names.
Maddox, 24, and Zahara, 21, now both have “proof of publication” confirming their intent to change their name, with legal notices published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal this month, People reported.
Angelina Jolie with her three eldest children, Pax, Zahara and Maddox, in 2024. Getty
This satisfies a quirk in California law that requires those wanting to change their name to publish it in a newspaper – a centuries-old legal tradition originally designed to prevent fraud.
Unlike in Australia, where name changes are handled quietly through state Births, Deaths and Marriages registries, California law forces the process through the court system and into the public eye.
Both siblings intend to drop Pitt’s name from their hyphenated last names.
In her ad, which ran in the publication on June 16, June 23, June 30 and July 7, Zahara requested her full legal name be “Zahara Marley Jolie”.
Her brother’s ran on June 10, June 17, June 24 and July 1. He requested his name be “Maddox Chivan Jolie”.
Maddox will next have a hearing on September 14 and Zahara on September 24.
The siblings’ move is following in the footsteps of their younger sister, Shiloh, who successfully petitioned the court to legally remove Pitt from her last name shortly after turning 18.
Pitt is said to have been “hurt” by his children’s decisions to drop his last name, with a source saying the news had been “very difficult.”
“[Brad’s] biggest fear is to be permanently disconnected from the kids because he does want to find a way to make things right,” an insider explained to US Weekly when Maddox officially filed in May.
Zahara has previously dropped Pitt’s name publicly, taking to the stage at her college graduation earlier this year as “Zahara Marley Jolie”.
Zahara, who has not used her hyphenated last name for years, is in the process of removing Pitt legally. Getty
Maddox quietly dropped Pitt from his professional name earlier this year while working on his mother’s upcoming film, Couture, where he was credited as “Maddox Jolie”.
While not legally, younger sister Vivienne was also credited as simply “Vivienne Jolie” in the playbill for the Broadway musical The Outsiders.
Affectionately known as Brangelina during their time together, Jolie and Pitt met in 2004 on the set of the film Mr. & Mrs. Smith and share the six children, Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and twins, Knox and Vivienne, 18.
Jolie is pictured here in 2021 with five of her six children, (L-R) Shiloh, Zahara, Vivienne, Maddox and Knox. Getty
By the time the film was released in 2005, Pitt had left Jennifer Aniston to be with Jolie, who had already adopted Maddox from a Cambodian orphanage in 2002, when he was seven months old.
The couple married in 2014 at their French chateau, before separating in 2016 following an incident on a private jet as it was ferrying the family from Europe to the US.