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May 15th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their six children. She has spoken of her
relief at being able to tell them they will not lose her to breast cancer.
Picture: Rex Features
He added: “I was as surprised as anyone and deeply moved by the way she’s
handled this. She’s a very extraordinary person, the way she examined it and
what she shared.”
The actor said that he “absolutely” respected his daughter’s
decision not to tell him about the operations. “I completely understand,”
he said. “I want the focus to be on the inspiration.”
He spoke to Jolie yesterday, after the announcement had been made, he said –
but they did not discuss global reaction. “She just explained to me and
educated me on this stuff,” he said.
“The decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy
that I made,” Jolie, 37, wrote in an op-ed in the New
York Times. “I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear
they will lose me to breast cancer”.
Angelina Jolie with her mother in 2001 (Reuters)
Her mother, the actress Marcheline Bertrand, succumbed to ovarian cancer in
January 2007. Mother and daughter were close, and Jolie has
previously admitted that she struggled to cope with the loss.
“She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold
them in her arms,” said Jolie today. “But my other children will never have
the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.
“We often speak of ‘Mommy’s mommy,’ and I find myself trying to explain the
illness that took her away from us”.
On learning of the odds she faced, Jolie said that she “decided to be
proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could”.
The actress, who kept a demanding
international work schedule between her surgeries, said she had
chosen to speak publicly about her ordeal “because I hope that other women
can benefit from my experience”.
Her decision was hailed as “heroic” by her partner, the actor Brad
Pitt.
Coming from a woman whose industry demands glamorous appearances and who is
frequently voted one of the world’s most beautiful people, her remarks were
also welcomed by other
breast cancer sufferers, medics and women’s groups.
“I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not
know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer,” Jolie wrote.
“It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested, and that if
they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options.”
She paid tribute to Pitt, her “loving and supportive” partner, for being at
her side for “every minute” of her surgery at the Pink Lotus Breast Centre
in southern California.
Pitt, with whom she has three biological and three adopted children, said:
“Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as
so many others like her, absolutely heroic.
“I thank our medical team for their care and focus,” he told The
Evening Standard. “All I want for is for her to have a long and
healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our
family.”
Reassuring other women in her position that “I do not feel any less of a
woman,” Jolie wrote today: “I feel empowered that I made a strong choice
that in no way diminishes my femininity.”
Wendy Watson, who founded Britain’s National Hereditary Breast Cancer
Helpline, said that Jolie’s warning to other women about the condition was
“the highest profile you can get,” and that it took a “certain amount of
courage” to discuss a mastectomy publicly.
The actress Christina Applegate has said she suffered a “total emotional
collapse” after undergoing a double mastectomy to tackle breast cancer in
2008. Olivia Newton-John, who went through the procedure in 1993, has said
it filled her with “complete and utter dread”.
Angelina Jolie with William Hague during a visit to the Nzolo Internally
Displaced Persons camp, north of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (EPA)
Jolie was also praised by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, with whom she
travelled to Congo between her operations in order to energetically
campaign against sexual violence in refugee camps. She also appeared
at the G8 summit in London last month to discuss the issue.
“She is a courageous lady and a very professional lady,” said Mr Hague today.
“She gave no sign that she was undergoing such treatment and I think she’s a
very brave lady.” He predicted that her decision to speak publicly “will be
an inspiration to many”.
This morning Zoraida Sambolin, a 47-year-old presenter on CNN, was prompted by
Jolie’s article to disclose live on-air that she was suffering from breast
cancer and was to receive a double mastectomy.
Jolie won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Girl, Interrupted in 1999. She
said that she had discovered after taking a $3,000 blood test that she had a
defective BRCA1 gene, which leaves women with an average 65 per cent risk of
developing cancer.
The actress went through three months of surgery concluding at the end of last
month. She first underwent a painful procedure known as “nipple delay”, in
an effort to save her nipples, before having major surgery to remove breast
tissue in mid-February.
Nine weeks later, she received breast implants, and was informed that her risk
of developing cancer had fallen to five per cent.
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