Shiloh Isn't The Only Child Of Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt Who Found A Way To Publicly Shun Their Father
Most of Brad Pitt's children have taken steps to distance themselves from their dad.
Vahan Stepanyan | Shutterstock It's been almost eight years since Angelina Jolie announced her divorce from Brad Pitt. Despite being one of Hollywood's most beloved and highly-publicized couples, their split has been marked by both legal and custody battles.
One of the more prominent aspects of their divorce has been Pitt's relationship with the six children he shares with Jolie: Maddox, 20; Pax, 20; Zahara, 19; twins Vivienne and Knox, 15; and Shiloh, 18.
Shiloh isn't the only child of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt who publicly shuns their father.
According to TMZ, the 18-year-old child of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt has reportedly filed a request with the court to drop her father's surname from her own hyphenated surname, Jolie-Pitt. Shiloh first submitted the paperwork requesting the legal name change on May 27, the day she celebrated her 18th birthday.
Court documents showed that she was asking to change her full name from Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt to simply Shiloh Nouvel Jolie. Earlier this month, a video of Shiloh dancing went viral, and people noticed that she was only going by Shiloh "J" on Instagram. However, Shiloh isn't the only Jolie-Pitt child who has decided to renounce ties to their famous father.
In the playbill for the new musical "The Outsiders," which Brad and Angelina's daughter Vivienne helped Angelina produce, the teenager is listed as "Vivienne Jolie" instead of "Vivienne Jolie-Pitt." It's not clear if Vivienne has taken the legal route to change her last name as Shiloh has.
Zahara, Angelina and Brad's eldest daughter, has also seemingly cut ties with her father. In November 2023, while joining the Mu Pi chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at her university, Spelman College, Zahara introduced herself as "Zahara Marley Jolie," according to a video shared by Essence.
The relationship that Brad has with his children has taken a bit of a nosedive since Angelina filed for divorce and gained sole custody of their children.
Brad Pitt allegedly doesn't speak to most of his children, especially the older ones.
According to US Weekly, in 2020, a source told the publication that Pitt doesn't have a relationship with his eldest son, Maddox, adding that Pitt also doesn't speak to his other son, Pax.
Their strained relationship with their father allegedly happened because of a physical altercation on the family's private jet flight to Los Angeles in 2016. Pitt was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
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In 2022, Jolie filed a cross-complaint in Pitt's lawsuit that accused her of having improperly sold her half of their French winery, Château Miraval. In the complaint, Jolie detailed a 2016 incident onboard the couple's private jet that pushed her to file for divorce.
"Before it was over, Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face. Some of the children pleaded with Pitt to stop. They were all frightened. Many were crying," the complaint said. "Pitt grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her, and then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall. Pitt then punched the ceiling of the plane numerous times, prompting Jolie to leave the bathroom."
Pax even once called Brad a "world-class [expletive] and an "[expletive] awful human being," in a scathing Father's Day post in 2020, according to a Daily Mail report.
Pax lashed out at Brad in a post shared on his private Instagram account, writing, "You time and time and again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person."
"You have no consideration or empathy toward your four youngest children who tremble in fear when in your presence," Pax captioned a photograph of Pitt accepting the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2020.
Brad Pitt reportedly had no idea that his daughter Zahara had gotten into college.
During an interview with People on the red carpet for the 2022 film "Bullet Train," Brad was asked how he felt after news broke that his eldest daughter, Zahara, had committed to Spelman College.
"Yeah, that's beautiful," Pitt answered, appearing to look choked up. "Just, really beautiful."
Despite Pitt's genuine answer, people noticed that it seemed as if he'd found out about the news from that interview question.
"He didn’t even know she was going there. He looked confused," one user wrote. Another user added, "That isn’t a look of confusion; it’s a look of regret that he couldn’t be there with her & Angelina at the orientation."
Jolie admitted that she just wants her family 'to heal' following her divorce from Pitt.
During a December 2023 interview with WSJ. Magazine, Jolie opened up about what life has been like since her split from Pitt, explaining that she's been prioritizing spending time with her children.
"They are the closest people to me and my life, and they’re my close friends," said Jolie. "We’re seven very different people, which is our strength."
She devoted much of her time to her kids, only appearing in five films within the last seven years. "We had to heal. There are things we needed to heal from."
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.