Brad Pitt has spoken out about Angelina Jolie's bravery for undergoing a double mastectomy and having her ovaries removed to avoid cancer, explaining that: “She did it for the kids.”
Speaking on The Today Show in a joint interview, the Fury actor said his wife made the decision for their six children.
“There was no vanity to my wife’s approach. It was mature. There was a strength in that. It was just another one of those things in life that makes you tighter and she was doing it for the kids, and she was doing it for her family so we could be together."
Angelina said:
“I knew through the surgeries that he was on my side and that this wasn’t something where I was going to feel less of a woman because my husband wasn’t going to let that happen."
She added: “To face these issues together and speak about them and talk about what it is to be human, I think can be a beautiful thing.”
Angelina decided on surgery after learning she had an 87 per cent risk of developing breast cancer due to a defective gene. She also had a 50 per cent risk of getting ovarian cancer, so she decided to have her ovaries removed, which caused early menopause
Tearful Angelina explained that her mother Marcheline Bertrand, who died aged 56 from ovarian cancer, made her surgeon promise to look after her daughter.
“We had some of the same nurses, some of the same doctors. So, the doctor that did my ovary surgery was my mother’s doctor. And apparently my mother had said to her, ‘Promise me you will take Angie’s ovaries out’.
“So when we kind of got together, we both had a big cry, and she said, ‘I promised your mother, and I gotta do this’.”
Angelina, who also lost her grandmother to cancer, said her forthcoming film By The Sea, which co-stars Brad, was inspired by the grief.