Brad Pitt allegedly tried to prevent his daughter Shiloh Jolie-Pitt from testifying about her preferences for a custody arrangement years ago, it was claimed on Wednesday.
A source said Shiloh expressed a desire to testify at a hearing in 2021 amid Pitt’s divorce battle with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie, according to Us Weekly.
However, Shiloh — who is now 18 — was only 14 at the time of the hearing, so Pitt, 60, reportedly tried to block her from testifying.
Shiloh later took matters into her own hands and filed to change her last name from Jolie-Pitt to just Jolie, excising her father’s name.
The judge reportedly agreed with Pitt’s objection, and Shiloh did not end up testifying, though the source didn’t share any details about what she would have said if she did take the stand.
A spokesperson for Pitt had no comment when contacted by DailyMail.com.
Brad Pitt allegedly tried to prevent his daughter Shiloh Jolie-Pitt from testifying about her preferences for a custody arrangement years ago, it was claimed on Wednesday; pictured in LA in 2022
A source said Shiloh — now 18 — expressed a desire to testify at a hearing in 2021 amid Pitt’s divorce battle with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie, according to Us Weekly; seen in 2021 in London
She was described as only one of the children who wanted to testify, but it is unclear which other children had hoped to testify.
Pitt and Jolie’s other adopted children — Pax, 20, and Zahara, 19 — would have been older than Shiloh at the time.
Maddox, now 22, would likely have been 18 at the time of the custody hearing, so it may have had little impact on him, as he would have been able to choose which parent he wanted to live with.
Pitt was eventually awarded joint custody by the judge, but he was soon taken off the case.
In July of 2021, the Second District Court of Appeal in California disqualified Judge John W. Ouderkirk, who was serving as a private judge, because of business dealings that he had with Pitt’s attorneys.
The Court of Appeal determined that Ouderkirk had not properly disclosed the business dealings before joining the case.
According to a second source who spoke to Us Weekly, Pitt’s relationship with Shiloh underwent a drastic transformation in recent years.
‘She [used to be] very close with Brad and his family, but that relationship [changed] in recent years,’ they claimed.
That change was seemingly exemplified by Shiloh filing to change her name in May.
Shortly after the filing was reported, a source confirmed to DailyMail.com that the celebrity daughter had paid for her own attorney to make the name-change request.
Shiloh, who was 14 at the time, was reportedly among other children who wanted to testify, but a judge agreed with Pitt and prevented the testimony before awarding him joint custody; seen with Jolie in 2021 in Rome
‘Shiloh hired her own lawyer and paid for it herself, so Angie doesn’t know and can’t speak for it,’ they said.
Although Shiloh’s request has not yet been granted, the filings are relatively common, and there is little reason to think it would be denied.
Days after Shiloh’s filing was made public, a source close to Pitt told People that he was ‘aware and upset’ about his daughter’s desire to remove his last name from hers.
Shiloh is not the only child of the Tree Of Life star and Jolie to attempt to change their name. The couple share six children: Maddox, 22; Pax, 20; Zahara, 19; Shiloh, 18; and twins Knox and Vivienne, 15.
Most recently, his daughter Vivienne had her name listed as ‘Vivienne Jolie’ in a Playbill for the musical adaptation of The Outsiders, which her mother produced while she served as her assistant. However, it’s not known if she had legally changed her name.
The former couple’s daughter Zahara previously introduced herself as ‘Zahara Marley Jolie’ when she joined the Mu Pi chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Spelman College late last year.
And Pitt and Jolie’s oldest sons, Maddox and Pax, have reportedly not publicly used their father’s last name in years, and both have been openly antagonistic toward him.
Pitt and Jolie began dating publicly shortly after he and his then-wife Jennifer Aniston announced their divorce in 2005.
The Mr. And Mrs. Smith costars remained unmarried for years despite having multiple adopted and biological children together, but they got engaged in 2012 and finally tied the knot in 2014.
However, it was only around two years later when the Maleficent actress filed for divorce in 2016. She and Pitt were declared legally single in 2019.
However, the two A-listers have been embroiled in an ongoing divorce battle over assets and custody for years since.
A central issue seems to be a notorious private jet confrontation in 2016.
Daughter Vivienne (L) listed her name as ‘Vivienne Jolie’ in a Playbill for the musical adaption of The Outsiders, which her mother produced while she worked as her assistant; seen April 11 in NYC
Zahara (not picture) introduced herself to her sorority sisters without her father’s last name, and sons Pax (L) and Maddox (third from the right) have both stopped using their dad’s name in recent years amid their increasingly public feuds with him
An FBI report on the incident, which was published in 2022, saw Jolie accuse Pitt of physical assault while flying to California in 2016. She claimed that he was intoxicated and that he grabbed her by the head and shook her, and later pushed her down, as part of a confrontation allegedly related to their children.
Jolie told the FBI that Pitt told the children that she was ‘f***ing up this family,’ and she said he punched the ceiling of the airplane four times, according to a court filing.
She claimed that at one point he poured beer on her and a blanket she was under with multiple children.
Source close to Pitt later claimed that he never hit any of the children, though they admitted that he had been drinking.
