Inside Vivienne Jolie-Pitt's Relationship With Parents Brad And Angelina

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are known not only for being Hollywood A-listers but also as parents to a blended family. Vivienne Jolie-Pitt is the youngest of their children (along with twin brother Knox), but she is more visible than her siblings, who tend to live more private lives.

Vivienne starred in one of her mother's blockbuster films when she was just a child, and at only 16 years old she's building a career in the arts with the support of her mother. However, Vivienne's relationship with her father Brad Pitt is a bit murky as she has seemingly distanced herself from him in recent years. As with some of her siblings, it's not even clear if she'll legally keep Pitt in her surname.

Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt was born July 12, 2008, in Nice, France alongside her twin brother, Knox Léon. Her middle name was chosen to honor Angelina Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, according to Us.

Jolie and Brad Pitt sold the first baby photos of their newborn twins to Hello! and People for $14 million, all of which went to their Jolie-Pitt Foundation. Pitt felt "strange" when they sold "photos of something that's very intimate and personal," he told NPR in 2011 (via BBC). "We figured, 'Let's cut it off in the beginning,' and instead of that money going to people I do not respect," he said, referring to the paparazzi, "we would make some good out of it."

Vivienne continued to be in the spotlight when she was young. At only 5 years old, she played Aurora for a scene in 2014's "Maleficent" alongside her mother's titular sorceress. According to her mother, she was the only child not terrified of Angelina. "[T]he other three- and four-year-old [performers] wouldn't come near me. It had to be a child that liked me and wasn't afraid of my horns and my eyes and my claws. So it had to be Viv," Angelina told Entertainment Weekly (via Vanity Fair).

In 2024, Angelina Jolie co-produced a Broadway adaptation of S.E. Hinton's beloved novel "The Outsiders." Along for the ride? Her daughter Vivienne, who actually kickstarted her mom's efforts to bring "The Outsiders" to Broadway after its 2023 run in San Diego. "She went to see The Outsiders at La Jolla about five times and was telling me about it, and I had read the book, and I'd seen the film years ago," Angelina told Deadline. "Then she asked me to come see it with her ... as a mother, as a person, I was watching it, but I was really watching the effect it was having on my young daughter and what she was telling me about herself."

Vivienne, 15 at the time, worked alongside her mother to bring the novel to the stage. "Viv is a young artist who focuses her efforts on her support of others," Angelina said. "She has been there to assist in any way she can and has learned so much from [score and co-book writer] Justin Levine and the whole creative team." Jolie-Pitt was credited as a volunteer assistant on the Broadway production. Vivienne didn't receive a bio in Playbill, but her mother's read, "Angelina is thrilled to be working on her first theatrical producing venture alongside her daughter, Vivienne, who is a theatre student and supporter of the arts." It's not clear if Vivienne wants to continue working in theater, but her experience on "The Outsiders" can certainly propel her career in that direction.

Vivienne doesn't attend too many red carpets or award shows, but the success of "The Outsiders" ensured she couldn't say no to the Tonys. Vivienne appeared at the 77th annual Tony Awards in June 2024 with her mother, who presented at the award ceremony. She joined her mother and everyone else who brought "The Outsiders" to life on stage when the production won the Best Musical Award. Director Danya Taymor also won the Tony for Best Director and thanked the elder Jolie as part of a group of "great women who have lifted me up" (via CNN).

Mother and daughter got matching tattoos together to commemorate working alongside each other on the musical, further cementing their bond. "I got 'Stay Gold' with my daughter Viv during our time with 'The Outsiders.' It means so much to us separately and together," Angelina told CR Fashion Handbook. She didn't say specifically what the meaning behind the tattoo was, but "Stay Gold" is the title of one of the numbers in "The Outsiders" and must have been a very special song to Angelina and Vivienne.

While she was born Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Vivienne may be changing her surname. As spotted by People, Vivienne was credited as "Vivienne Jolie" on the playbill for "The Outsiders," sparking speculation that she's dropping her father's last name.

Vivienne wouldn't be the first of Jolie and Pitt's six children to stop using their father's last name. In a video shared by Essence on Instagram in 2023, Vivienne's older sister Zahara introduced herself as Zahara Marley Jolie when joining the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at Spelman College. Shiloh Jolie was legally granted a name change in August 2024, removing the hyphenated Pitt from her surname. A source close to Brad Pitt told People, "He's aware and upset that Shiloh dropped his last name. The reminders that he's lost his children, is of course not easy for Brad. He loves his children and misses them."

As Vivienne is still just a teenager, it's not clear if she's begun the legal process of changing her last name. She could be informally dropping it now with plans to officially change it at a later date as a way to further distance herself from her father, who has a strained relationship with all the children.

While Vivienne and her siblings haven't made public comments on why they might be distancing themselves from their father, information stemming from an Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt legal battle has shed new light on what their family dynamic was like.

In 2016, Brad Pitt was under investigation for child abuse due to his actions on a private plane with Jolie and their children, according to TMZ at the time. Details of the incident emerged in 2022 due to Jolie and Pitt's dispute over a winery they had previously owned together. Jolie alleged that "Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face" and "grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her," according to the court filing (via The New York Times). He also "poured beer on Jolie; at another [point], he poured beer and red wine on the children."

Jolie claimed the plane incident wasn't the first time Pitt had abused her, but was the first time he abused his children. "Jolie then immediately left him," read a filing in 2024 (via Variety). As all their children were minors at the time, it's not known if Vivienne specifically was on the plane during the altercation or which children were the victims of Pitt's alleged abuse in 2016. Pitt has not been criminally charged as of this writing.