Angelina Jolie made rare comments about the preventative double mastectomy she underwent back in 2013. The Oscar-winner, 50, touched on the topic of her mastectomy scars, which she recently showed for the first time in December, in a new interview with France Inter. Jolie, who plays a woman diagnosed with breast cancer in her latest film Couture, said that her scars 'are a choice' that she is 'grateful' she was able to make. 'I've always been someone more interested in the scars and the life that people carry,' she said. 'I'm not drawn to a perfect idea of a life that has no scars.' 'My scars are a choice I made to stay here as long as I could with my children. I love my scars because of that.
Jolie Reflects on Taking Proactive Steps for Her Health
'And I'm grateful that I had the opportunity and the choice to do something proactive about my health.' She noted that being able to choose to undergo the surgery was meaningful, especially because she lost her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to cancer and is now 'raising [her] children without a grandmother.' Bertrand was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1999 and later developed breast cancer. She died in January 2007 at the age of 56. Jolie's grandmother and aunt also passed away from cancer. 'So for me, I think this is life, and if you get to the end of your life and you haven't made mistakes and you haven't made a mess, you don't have scars, you haven't lived a full enough life,' Jolie said.
A Mother of Six: Jolie's Family with Brad Pitt
Jolie shares three biological children with ex-husband Brad Pitt, 61: Shiloh, 19, and 17-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. They also share three adopted children: Maddox, 24; Pax, 22; and Zahara, 21. In December 2025, she publicly showed her double mastectomy scars for the first time when she posed for Time France. 'I share these scars with many women I love,' she stated. 'And I'm always moved when I see other women share theirs.' 'I wanted to join them, knowing that TIME France would be sharing information about breast health, prevention, and knowledge about breast cancer.' In May 2013, Jolie had both breasts surgically removed, and then underwent reconstructive surgery, after discovering she carries a genetic mutation that dramatically increases the chance of being diagnosed with potentially fatal breast cancer.
The mutation in her BRCA1 gene left the mother-of-six with an estimated 87 per cent risk of breast cancer and 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer. In March 2015, she also had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed as a preventive measure against developing ovarian cancer. In her Time France interview, Jolie called for making BRCA screenings available to every woman. 'Every woman should always be able to determine her own healthcare journey and have the information she needs to make informed choices: genetic testing and screening should be accessible and affordable for women with clear risk factors or a significant family history.' 'When I shared my experience in 2013, it was to encourage informed choices,' she added.
'Healthcare decisions must be personal, and women must have the information and support they need to make those choices. Access to screening and care should not depend on financial resources or where someone lives.' In 2015, Jolie shared about her decision to remove her ovaries due to a second health scare. The Maleficent star published a lengthy opinion piece, titled Angelina Jolie Pitt: Diary Of A Surgery in the New York Times explaining her decision. According to Jolie, she had been planning to undergo surgery to remove her ovaries and Fallopian tubes for a while at the time, but a call from her doctor made the procedure more urgent. A blood test detected potential anomalies linked to the protein CA-125, which is used to monitor ovarian cancer; Jolie's doctor told her about this urging her to see her surgeon who also had treated her late mother.
'I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt,' she wrote. 'I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn't live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren.'
She noted that she chose to keep her uterus because there is no history of uterine cancer in her family. Jolie has previously spoken of the void in her life that her mother's death had left - a pain that led her to taking the brave decision to have a double mastectomy, so her children may not have to experience the pain she did. The actress's aunt, Debbie Martin, then died of breast cancer at the age of 61 less than two weeks after Jolie revealed she had undergone her mastectomy.
To counteract the loss of her ovaries, Jolie turned to hormone replacement therapy and had a device inserted in her womb. 'Regardless of the hormone replacements I'm taking, I am now in menopause,' she wrote. 'I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes. But I feel at ease with whatever will come, not because I am strong but because this is a part of life. It is nothing to be feared.' 'I know my children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer'',' she added.