Atlanta 5/15/2013 2:41:12 AM
News / Entertainment

Brad Pitt Voices Support For “Heroic” Angelina Jolie

Brad Pitt wants the world to know that he is proud of fiancée Angelina Jolie for choosing to undergo a preventative double mastectomy. Calling the decision “absolutely heroic,” Pitt says he hopes to have a “long and healthy life” with Jolie and their 6 children.

"Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie's choice, as well as many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for their care and focus. All I want is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family,” Pitt told London's Evening Standard on Tuesday after Jolie revealed her surgery in an op-ed piece for the New York Times.

In the article, Jolie admitted she has a greater chance of developing ovarian and breast cancer due to being a carrier of the BRCA1 gene. Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer in January 2007. “My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman,” she wrote.

“Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy,” explained Jolie. “I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex.”

“I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer,” she continued.

“I am fortunate to have a partner, Brad Pitt, who is so loving and supportive. So to anyone who has a wife or girlfriend going through this, know that you are a very important part of the transition,” Jolie added. “Brad was at the Pink Lotus Breast Center, where I was treated, for every minute of the surgeries. We managed to find moments to laugh together. We knew this was the right thing to do for our family and that it would bring us closer. And it has.”

###

Click here for more Entertainment News