Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, daughter of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, has decided to remove her father's surname from her own “after painful events,” her lawyer says.
The “Kung Fu Panda 3” voice actress filed a petition for a name change in Los Angeles County Superior Court last May, shortly after her 18th birthday. Shiloh, whose full name is now Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, wants her name to be “Shiloh Nouvel Jolie,” according to the petition obtained by The Times and a name-change notice that appeared in the newspaper’s July 8 issue.
On July 8, attorney Peter Levine also filed a legal notice with this newspaper as part of a statewide legal proceeding that helps filter out misleading name changes. But TMZ and other outlets misinterpreted the notice to mean that Shiloh had “publicized” the change amid her parents’ contentious and protracted divorce and related legal battles.
“Shiloh Jolie did not release any 'announcement' announcing any name change, and any press reports that do so are inaccurate,” Levine said in a statement to The Times on Monday.
“As Shiloh’s attorney, I am required to publish a legal notice because California law requires anyone who wants to change their name to do so. That legal notice was published in the Los Angeles Times, as required.”
Levine added that media outlets “should be more careful in their reporting, especially when covering a young adult who has made an independent and significant decision after painful events and is simply following a legal process.”
He did not give further details.
The notice, titled “Order to Show Cause for Name Change,” said Jolie-Pitt filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court for a decree to change her name, proposing that her new legal name be Shiloh Nouvel Jolie.
The notice also says that if a written objection is not filed within the allotted time, the court may grant the petition without a hearing, which is scheduled for July 29. A copy of the order will be posted at least once a week for four successive weeks before the hearing date.
Shiloh was born on May 27, 2006 in Swakopmund, Namibia. She is the third of the former Hollywood couple's six children and the eldest of their three biological children. They also share Maddox, Pax, Zahara, and twins Knox and Vivienne.
Shiloh’s younger sister Vivienne also recently dropped Pitt from her last name when she appeared on the TV show “The Outsiders.” Zahara also performed without her father’s nickname.
In September 2016, Jolie filed for divorce against her “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” co-star days after they allegedly got into a physical altercation on a private flight home from Europe. Several of the actors’ children were also reportedly involved in the incident, according to an FBI report.
Details about the 2016 confrontation emerged in a lawsuit Jolie filed in 2022 against the federal law enforcement agency.
An additional mention of the alleged incident surfaced during their battle over Chateau Miraval, the former couple's wine estate and family home in the south of France, which also served as the site of their 2014 nuptials.
In February 2022, Pitt sued Jolie and her company, Nouvel, for allegedly selling his share of her winery, without her supposedly agreed-upon consent, in order to “reap profits she did not earn and returns on an investment she did not make.”
Jolie responded with a countersuit in October 2022. Earlier this year, her legal team filed a motion to acquire Pitt's communications stemming from a “comprehensive” confidentiality agreement purportedly related to the sale.
Although the Oscar winners have yet to finalize the details of their divorce, they were declared legally single in 2019.
Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.
