Tragic Details About Brad Pitt And Angelina Jolie's Son Maddox

Superstar Angelina Jolie made headlines when she adopted her first child Maddox Jolie-Pitt in 2002. Since then, Maddox has gone through a stunning transformation before our eyes, and it's clear that Jolie is proud of the man Maddox has become. In 2019, she told Entertainment Tonight, "I'm so happy for him that [Maddox has] grown up into such a good man. I say that 'cause he's smart and he's doing his work but he's also wild. He's balanced in his teenage years." 

Maddox has grown into an adult who makes his mother beam with pride, but that doesn't mean he always had an easy road growing up. Maddox has gone through his fair share of difficulties, which have surely shaped who he is today.

Maddox has studied biochemistry at South Korea's Yonsei University, learned multiple languages, and even taken flying lessons. He also seems to be joining the family business; he has acted as an executive producer and a production assistant on films alongside his mom. There is clearly plenty in Maddox's life to celebrate, but there are also tragic details of his story that the world may not know.

An unlikely force united Maddox Jolie-Pitt with his mother when he was just a few months old: the 2001 movie "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider." Angelina Jolie traveled to Cambodia to shoot the film and took a profound interest in the country. She subsequently went to an orphanage in the town of Battambang in hopes of adopting her first child. When Jolie saw Maddox, he was asleep in a box that was hanging from the ceiling.

In an interview in the years that followed, Jolie described seeing Maddox for the first time. "Mad was the last kid I saw, and he was asleep," she said, according to Buzzfeed. "He was 3 months old, and they put him in my arms, and he stayed asleep ... I just stared at him, and I started crying, and he smiled," Jolie said. 

Like many first-time moms-to-be, Jolie-Pitt said that she was worried that she wasn't up to the challenge of raising a child, but the bond that she felt with baby Maddox gave her confidence. "I hadn't held children in my life, and I was always considered so dark, and I always had so many things that made me feel like maybe I shouldn't be somebody's mom because certainly the world has an opinion of me and I'm not so sure about myself and am I gonna be the best mom?" she recalled. "So, the fact that this little kid seemed at ease gave me the courage to feel like I could make him happy. And so we became a family right then."

Maddox Jolie-Pitt's humble beginnings turned into a different life in an instant. Then, a few years after adopting Maddox in 2002, Angelina Jolie started dating fellow actor Brad Pitt in 2005. Just months later, Pitt began the process to adopt Maddox, as well. Pitt and Jolie went on to have six children together, in total. These days, however, Pitt's bond with his children has soured. Seemingly, like most of his siblings, Maddox has a strained relationship with Pitt.

Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, and a long custody battle with Pitt ensued. Throughout the tumultuous split, Jolie has accused Pitt of domestic violence. In 2022, she made an allegation against Pitt that painted the darkest picture of their marriage yet. An FBI report recounted a 2016 incident that took place on a plane, alleging that Pitt "physically and verbally assaulted [Jolie] and the children, who have 'experienced lasting physical and mental trauma as a result of the assault,'" per NBC News. An intoxicated Pitt allegedly attacked Jolie, and it was Maddox who got in the middle to try to stop the altercation. 

In 2021, Maddox testified against his father in court during the custody battle. A source told Us Weekly, "Maddox has already given testimony as [an] adult in the ongoing custody dispute and it wasn't very flattering toward Brad."

Despite the difficulties in Maddox and his siblings' relationship with Brad Pitt, it seems that his relationship with Angelina Jolie has been solid through it all. Consequently, Maddox appears to be on Jolie's side throughout the ongoing bitter divorce, and this is reportedly leading Maddox to make a heavy decision. He may be dropping the "Pitt" from his name due to the bad blood between himself and his father. A source told Us Weekly that Maddox "doesn't use Pitt as his last name on documents that aren't legal and instead uses Jolie. Maddox wants to legally change his last name to Jolie, which Angelina has said she doesn't support."

If Maddox chooses to move forward with just Jolie as his last name, he won't be the only one of his siblings to do so. When his sister, Shiloh, turned 18, she filed paperwork to legally remove "Pitt" from her name. While she is seemingly the only one of Jolie and Pitt's children to begin a legal name change, her sisters, Zahara and Vivienne have also reportedly dropped their dad's last name in their day-to-day lives.