'It's important to have the choice': Angelina Jolie says she has no regrets about getting a double mastectomy

Angelina Jolie made the decision to undergo a preventative double mastectomy in 2013 – a decision she says she has no regrets about.

The actress filmmaker and humanitarian recently opened up about the decision to undergo the surgery, which involves removing both breasts, in conversation with Hello at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

"I did choose to have that [surgery] because I lost my mother and my grandmother very young," she told the publication.

"I have the BRCA gene, so I chose to have a double mastectomy a decade ago," she continued.

"And then I've also had my ovaries removed, because that's what took my mother."

Jolie's mother, actress and producer Marcheline Bertrand, died at the age of 56 in 2007 after a years-long battle with ovarian and breast cancer.

Her grandmother Lois Bertrand also died of cancer. She was 45.

The BRCA is a gene that predisposes one to cancer.

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Back in 2019, Jolie reflected on her decision to pursue a double mastectomy in a personal essay published in Time Magazine.

"I had an estimated 87 per cent risk of developing the disease and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer," she wrote.

"Because of my high risk, experts recommended preventive surgeries. I had a double mastectomy and later removed my ovaries and fallopian tubes, significantly reducing, although not removing altogether, my risk of developing cancer."

"I'm often asked how my medical choices, and being public about them, have affected me," she later added.

"I simply feel I made choices to improve my odds of being here to see my children grow into adults, and of meeting my grandchildren.

Over a decade on and Jolie says she has no regrets and, while she acknowledges her decision may not be for everyone, she stresses the importance of choice.

"Those are my choices. I don't say everybody should do it that way but it's important to have the choice," she told Hello.

"And I don't regret it."

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