Angelina Jolie Shows Her Mastectomy Scars For The First Time And Here's The Touching Reason

For the first time ever, Angela Jolie has chosen to display the scars from her mastectomy. The 50 year old award winning actress talked about why she made the brave decision to display the scars from her preventative double mastectomy more than ten years ago in a recent interview with TIME France.

For those who don't remember, Jolie had a double mastectomy in 2013 after her mother Marcheline Bertrand passed away in 2007 at the age of 56 after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. In an opinion piece published in the New York Times in May 2013, she described how health testing revealed a "faulty gene," BRCA1, which greatly raised her likelihood of contracting the disease.

As at the time, she said: “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," says Angelina Jolie emotionally. In pictures that will go with the entire interview, which is scheduled to be released on December 18, the actress is now displaying her scars from the treatment for the first time.

In 2013, the 50-year-old actress from Girl, Interrupted had a preventative double mastectomy

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

In the published excerpt of the interview, Jolie stated: "I share these scars with many women I love. 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," Jolie powerfully added. The mother-of-six covered one breast with her hand in the TIME cover shot while wearing a low-cut black jumper.

Here is her Instagram post

In order to prevent ovarian cancer, Jolie also had her fallopian tubes and ovaries removed in March 2015, according to MailOnline. Jolie has advocated for BRCA testing to be available to all women in a recent interview.

"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," she said.

As we mentioned, the full mastectomy photos and interview will be made available later this week

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

"When I shared my experience in 2013, it was to encourage informed choices," added Angelina Jolie. She also went further saying:

"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 essence, mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes can raise a person's risk of getting cancer. This is truly touching and we'd like to hear your own opinion about it in the comments section below.