Once dubbed ‘Brangelina,’ Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie constituted one of the most prominent couples in Hollywood.
They got together on the ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ set in 2004 and soon after became well-known throughout the world.
Three of the couple’s six children are adopted. Angelina adopted Maddox Jolie-Pitt, a Cambodian, in 2002, before to her start dating Brad. Later on, Brad also adopted Maddox.
They took in Ethiopian adoptee Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt in 2005. In 2007, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, a Vietnamese child, became their third adopted child.
In addition, they have three biological children: the twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline Jolie Pitt, as well as Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt.
In 2016, Brad and Angelina parted ways. The divorce settlement became so complicated that the former power couple found themselves in the middle of a custody dispute.
Headlines also reported on alleged altercations between Brad and a few of the kids, most notably Maddox.
Brad, Angelina, and their kids have had a difficult time adjusting to their public divorce. A redacted,
confidential FBI report that described an alleged event that occurred days before Angelina filed for divorce was obtained by People Magazine in 2022.
According to the story, Brad was the subject of an investigation by the FBI and the Los Angeles Department of Child and Family Services (DFCS) following
a tip that he got into a drunken dispute with Angelina in front of his children while flying on a private jet from France to Los Angeles.
The renowned family is no longer a pair, but the media hasn’t stopped observing everything they do, even the children’s decisions to remove their father’s name from their own names.
The media has persisted in harassing Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, even after she filed for divorce from him in 2016.
They have carried on as best they could with their lives in spite of the unwelcome public attention.
One of the best historically Black institutions and universities, Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, accepted their daughter Zahara as a student in 2022.
During a meeting with senior college staff members in August of that year, Angelina was seen on camera expressing her impending tears.
I have not yet begun to cry. Even though the video was a cute picture of a lovely mother-daughter encounter, Zahara was in another video that went viral.
Zahara was featured in a film released by Essence in November 2023, whereby the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha introduced its newest members. As Zahara stepped into the spotlight to make her introduction, she said:
‘My name is Zahara Marley Jolie, and I’m from Los Angeles, California, which is known as the ‘city of angels.’
I am the seventh person in this queue. Zahara’s excited declaration was exciting to behold, but many viewers also noticed that she had deleted the ‘Pitt’ from her last name.
The ostensibly insignificant fact has now spurred debate about Zahara’s connection with her parents.
One person bemoaned, ‘Imagine your adopted child dropping your name,’ while another said, ‘That’s sad.’
He embraced those kids as his own and adored them. Others, nevertheless, supported Zahara’s decision.
One replied, ‘She’s an adult and can make that decision’ and another, more optimistically, added, ‘This doesn’t mean reconciliation isn’t an option eventually.’
A user made the following comment: It is sad that this family drama is being acted out in the open. Particularly when kids are involved and being used as weapons.
But Zahara isn’t the couple’s only child to abandon the ‘Pitt’ surname. In 2023, when Vivienne assisted her mother in staging the musical
‘The Outsiders’ at the La Jolla playhouse, astute observers saw a startling discrepancy in her playbill credit.
The playbill identified the 15-year-old simply as ‘Vivienne Jolie,’ according to a People magazine. Whether the names of the two young women have been officially altered is yet unknown.
Another video that went viral featured Vivienne in the background listening to her mother talk to the media about the performance.
Nonetheless, a lot of people voiced their thoughts about the dysfunctional family in the comments area.
While some said Brad had let the children down, others asserted Angelina had ‘turned those children against Brad.’
I feel horrible for all the kids; in a divorce, the kids should always come first, said one person.
One source said that Angelina urges her children to ‘avoid spending time’ with their father during visitation periods.
In the meantime, scrutiny has also been given to Angelina’s earlier revelations regarding her relationship with her mother.
‘My mother always made it obvious that I was her buddy, and I can learn a lot from it about raising my own kids.
I sensed she was interested in hearing what I had to say when we spoke. In 2011, she told The Sun, ‘She enjoyed me and I feel like I’m enjoying my kids.’
Soon after Vivienne’s name change was detected, a TMZ rumor said Shiloh was the next child to axe ‘Pitt’ from her name.
According to the article, on May 27, 2024, Shiloh turned eighteen and filed a petition to have her name officially changed to ‘Shiloh Jolie,’ with the word ‘Pitt’ completely struck out.
As the tumultuous divorce proceedings between Angelina and Brad continued, many people expressed their opinions about the problems on social media.
‘Angelina Jolie, shame on you!’ yelled a user. ‘If her allegations are true then I understand her wanting to protect her kids but so far this always just points to a bitter divorce and using the kids as weapons,’
an another individual remarked. One person commented, ‘Hopefully his kids are old enough to want to investigate a relationship with him so they can judge for themselves.’Another person said, ‘What a sad situation.’