Brad Pitt’s daughter Shiloh waited four years before dropping her father’s name – after a disagreement during a custody battle when she was just 14.
Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, whose mother is Angelina Jolie, filed paperwork to drop the Pitt name on Monday, May 30, three days after she turned 18 — the earliest she could do so.
The Mail revealed last week that she had hired (and paid) her own lawyer to handle the case.
A source close to the proceedings told me that the move was “connected to the (alleged) history of abuse” by her father and also to “the violation of the rights of Shiloh’s victims.”
I’m told she blames her father for the legal action that resulted in her not being able to testify about her custody wishes.
Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, whose mother is Angelina Jolie, filed paperwork to drop the Pitt name on Monday, May 30, three days after she turned 18.
Brad Pitt’s daughter Shiloh waited four years before dropping her father’s name – after a disagreement during a custody battle when she was just 14
She also did not discuss what happened on that fateful flight in 2016, which led to the end of her parents’ marriage, even though she wanted to.
Under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, victims of federal crimes have rights, including: “The right not to be excluded from any such public judicial proceeding unless the court, upon receipt of clear and convincing evidence, determines that the testimony of the victim would be materially changed if the victim heard other testimony during that proceeding.”
The issue of the custody arrangement for the six Jolie-Pitt children – Pax, Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne – was decided during six months of closed-door hearings between December 2020 and May 2021.
Jolie requested to have the children testify, but that was not possible.
Judge John Oudekirk ruled that custody should be 50-50 and refused to hear evidence from the children, who had already undergone a therapeutic evaluation, which was reported to the court.
The verdict was later overturned in 2021, after Jolie appealed on the grounds that the judge had a commercial relationship with one of Pitt’s lawyers.
A source said: “The name change goes back to the custody battle and Shiloh’s belief that her rights as a victim have been violated.
“Shiloh believed that as a crime victim she had the right to testify – and was prevented from doing so.”
I am told there are no plans for her to take any further legal action regarding her father. It is unknown whether younger siblings Knox and Vivienne will follow in her footsteps when they turn 18 in July 2026.
There appears to be no prospect of a reconciliation between Shiloh and her father, Brad Pitt
Since the split, the kids – Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh (pictured), 18, and Knox and Vivienne, 15 – have formed a close-knit gang of seven with their mother
Last month there were suggestions in supermarket magazines that Shiloh was planning to move in with her father as soon as possible.
Other stories suggested that film star Pitt was ‘hopeful’ to reconcile with his daughter now that she is an adult.
But in reality, there seems to be no prospect of this – or rapprochement with any of the children, after the infamous mid-air confrontation.
In an FBI report on the incident published in 2022, Jolie accused Pitt of physical abuse while the family was on a flight to California, which he has always denied.
Pitt was also accused of assaulting one of the children on the plane, but was cleared of wrongdoing by the LAPD.
Son Pax previously said in an Instagram post that all four youngest children – including Shiloh – were “shaking in fear” in their father’s presence.
Since the split, the kids — Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and Knox and Vivienne, 15 — have formed a close-knit gang of seven with their mother. Last year she called them “the people closest to me in my life,” adding, “We needed to heal.” There are things we needed to heal from.”
Although Shiloh has repeatedly walked the red carpet with Jolie, neither she nor her siblings have done the same for Pitt. “This is the result of textbook parental alienation, and it is a great sadness in his life,” I was told. “There have been years and years of (Angelina) telling and retelling the same lies (about Brad), and the reality is she has alienated the kids, and the reality is it upsets Brad. He cares about them all. It’s devastating.’
His spokesman said this week that he would not comment when it comes to his children.
Zahara, a student at Spelman College, Atlanta, no longer uses the name Pitt.
Vivienne worked with Angelina on a musical, The Outsiders, in New York this spring and is referred to simply as ‘Vivienne Jolie’ in the program.
Maddox and Pax have not used the name Pitt for years.