Avril Lavigne ex Deryck Whibley formally removes her name

Singer Avril Lavigne's ex-husband, who secretly took her last name as his middle name when he and Lavigne married in 2006, has formally removed it.

A Los Angeles judge on Thursday granted Deryck Whibley, lead singer of the Canadian rock band Sum 41, his petition to restore his birth name, TMZ.com reported Monday. Whibley had filed for the name restoration in November.

Lavigne, 29, and Whibley, 34, married in July 2006 after dating for two years. She filed for divorce in October 2009, and in 2011 began collaborating with Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger, 39, whom she subsequently began dating; the two married on July 1, 2013.

Whibley, now engaged to Ariana Cooper, said in May that his alcoholism had landed him in the hospital for a month, writing on his website, "I was sitting at home, poured myself another drink around midnight and was about to watch a movie when all of a sudden I didn't feel so good. I then collapsed to the ground unconscious. My fiancee got me rushed to the hospital where they put me . . . [in] the intensive care unit."