- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
Brad Pitt has two words for the love of his life: absolutely heroic.
The star of the upcoming World War Z has spoken out about fiancee Angelina Jolie‘s stirring op-ed in The New York Times, in which the actress, 37, revealed she had undergone a preventative double mastectomy. The procedure will vastly reduce Jolie’s chances of contracting breast cancer, a disease to which she genetically is predisposed.
STORY: Angelina Jolie’s Shocking Revelation: I Had a Double Mastectomy
“Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as so many others like her, absolutely heroic,” Pitt, 49, told the London Evening Standard. “I thank our medical team for their care and focus.”
“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,” Pitt said.
In her essay, Jolie explains that her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer in 2007 at age 56.
“My mother fought cancer for almost a decade,” Jolie wrote. “She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.”
Jolie added that she carries a “faulty” gene, BRCA1, that increases her risk for both breast and ovarian cancer.
STORY: Hollywood Praises Angelina Jolie’s ‘Brave’ Double Mastectomy Decision
The procedure actually involves several surgeries, which began Feb. 2 with the “nipple delay,” a painful technique that can increase the chance of saving the nipple. That was followed two weeks later with the major surgery, where the breast tissue is removed. Nine weeks after that came reconstructive surgery.
The couple raises six children together: Maddox, 11, Pax, 9, Zahara, 8, Shiloh, 6, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 4.
“I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer,” Jolie wrote.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day