Angelina Jolie celebrates her 51st birthday with her children… after son Maddox’s brutal blow to dad Brad Pitt

Angelina Jolie marked her 51st birthday with her children by her side on Thursday – after son Maddox became the latest of her brood to officially drop estranged dad Brad Pitt’s surname.

The actress opted for a casual look in a grey sweater, trousers and spectacles as she stepped out with sons Knox, 17, and Pax, 22, in LA.

Knox flashed his bold new orange and red hair paired with a cream shirt and white joggers as he helped his mom unload items from the car.

Pax was seen chatting with Jolie as the family prepared to celebrate her special day.

The outing comes after The Daily Mail confirmed that Jolie’s eldest son Maddox, 24, requested to legally remove ‘Pitt’ from his surname last month, changing his full name to Maddox Chivan Jolie, and listed his reason as ‘personal.’

Maddox informally dropped the surname in February, when he was listed in the end credits of his mother’s movie, Couture, as Maddox Jolie, rather than Maddox Jolie-Pitt. 

In a heartbreaking blow to the Oscar winner, who has been estranged from his children, Maddox has joined several of his siblings in distancing themselves from the Pitt name, following his sister Shiloh’s legal name change last year. 

His other sisters Zahara, 21, and Vivienne, 17, have also informally dropped the name. 

Pitt, 62, and Jolie were married from 2014 to 2019, but their relationship came to a tumultuous end years before their divorce was finalized. 

The Daily Mail reached out to Pitt’s representatives for comment at the time.

The sighting comes after Knox, Pax, and Maddox, were seen at sister Zahara’s graduation from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia  – but there was no sign of Pitt whose last name Zahara ditched again at the ceremony.

Knox, his twin Vivienne and Shiloh, 20, were welcomed during Jolie’s relationship with Pitt which ended in divorce in 2016.

Zahara appeared to publicly remove Pitt’s last name for the first time in her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority initiation ceremony in late 2023.

In their divorce, Jolie cited irreconcilable differences and later accused Pitt of abusing both her and their children, which he has denied. 

Their lengthy, contentious divorce battle was finalized in late 2024, and since then, many of their kids have dropped Pitt’s surname amid their ongoing estrangement. 

Shiloh also now goes by Shiloh Nouvel Jolie as she filed paperwork to legally remove her estranged dad’s surname from her own when she turned 18 in the summer of 2024. 

Then, in February, Maddox dropped Pitt from his professional credits as he appeared as Maddox Jolie in the production notes for the film Couture and screenings of the movie Maria. 

In May 2024, Vivienne was credited as Vivienne Jolie, not Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, on the playbill for The Outsiders, the Broadway musical. 

Pitt made a shocking remark about his family after his bitter divorce with Jolie officially came to an end, but his fractured relationship with their six children remains unresolved. 

Pitt, who believes his relationship with two of his children is ‘unfixable,’ opened up about how important family is to him, amid his ongoing and escalating estrangement from his kids. 

Speaking at the F1 premiere in Mexico City, he said: ‘No matter the mistake, you just learn from [it] and move on,’ he told ET. ‘It’ll lead to the next success.’ 

The Oscar winner continued, ‘When you get to my age, you realize how important it is to surround yourself with the people you love, the people that love you back.’ 

‘Friends, family, and that’s it,’ he added. ‘From there, we get to go make things. It’s a pretty simple, I think, equation.’ 

The interview comes after a source exclusively told the Daily Mail how Pitt felt after Pax was pictured last month stumbling out of the Chateau Marmont, propped up by several friends. 

‘He has zero concern with what Pax does or doesn’t do. [Pax’s] actions reflect who he is,’ the insider said.