Brad Pitt's Pal Claims Angelina Jolie Is Trying to 'Separate Family' — After Estranged Son Maddox Drops Famous Dad's Last Name

Brad Pitt's pals are rushing to his defense after adopted son Maddox became the latest of his six children to publicly drop his last name, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Maddox's surname appeared as simply "Jolie" instead of "Jolie-Pitt" in the credits of his mother Angelina Jolie's new film, Couture.

One friend of the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star, 62, blamed ex-wife Jolie, 50, for poisoning the children against him during their long and bitter divorce.

"It’s sad – this is a textbook example of what a successful campaign to separate a family looks like," a confidant of Putt's told TMZ on Friday, February 27.

Maddox, 24, had still been credited as "Jolie-Pitt" in his mom's 2024 film Maria, where he worked as a production assistant.

Pitt and Maddox have been estranged ever since Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016. She alleged the actor got "verbally abusive" and "physical" with one of their children on a private flight from France back to Los Angeles.

The star denied the claim, and no charges were ever brought against him, but Jolie had primary physical custody of the six kids for the next five years until 2021.

Spending so much time living exclusively with Jolie and only having supervised visits with their dad, the children all became incredibly protective of and close to their mother.

The first member of the brood to publicly erase Pitt's name from her life was adopted daughter Zahara, 21. She went by "Zahara Marley Jolie" at her November 2023 sorority induction at Atlanta's Spelman College.

Pitt and Jolie's biological daughter, Shiloh, 19, made the shocking move of petitioning a Los Angeles judge to legally drop "Pitt" from her surname on her 18th birthday in May 2024

To keep the Tomb Raider star out of the situation, Shiloh used her own lawyer, who described her as a "young adult who has made an independent and significant decision following painful events." The name change was granted in August 2024.

The former couple's twin daughter, Vivienne, 17, publicly dropped "Pitt" from her last name in June 2024.

She was listed in the playbill for the Broadway play The Outsiders, which she worked on with her mother, as "Vivienne Jolie."

While Vivenne's twin brother, Knox, and the exes' adopted son, Pax, 22, have not publicly revealed the current status of their surnames, both young men remain distant from their father.

Knox, who is Pitt's lookalike, is incredibly close to Jolie. He accompanied the Wanted star as her date to the November 2024 Oscars Governor's Ball.

Jolie has also been highly supportive of Knox's martial arts career, cheering him on at the IKF Point Muay Thai Technical Competition in July 2025, where he won his second bout.

It was Pax who offered the most significant insight into how damaged his relationship with Pitt was in a private Instagram post on Father’s Day 2020.

It was leaked in November 2023, but showed that at the time he wrote it, the then-16-year-old raged, "Happy Father’s Day to this world class a-----!! You time and time again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person."

The Viet Nam native huffed, "You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell. You may tell yourself and the world whatever you want, but the truth will come to light someday."

Pax signed off, "So, Happy Father’s Day, you f------ awful human being!!!"