EXCLUSIVE: Angelina Jolie 'Still Haunted by Cancer Fears' After Death of Her Mother and Double Mastectomy
Angelina Jolie is said to be 'haunted' by her cancer fears.
Sept. 16 2025, Published 1:49 p.m. ET
Angelina Jolie is still privately haunted by the specter of cancer, years after losing her mother to the disease and undergoing major preventative surgery herself, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The 50-year-old actress, speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival during a Q&A for her new film Couture, became emotional as she reflected on her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died in 2007 aged 56 after battling both ovarian and breast cancer.
Jolie's 'Cancer Fears'
Jolie is said to be 'haunted' by cancer fears.
Jolie underwent a hysterectomy in 2010 and a double mastectomy in 2013 to reduce her own risk – procedures that brought international attention to hereditary cancer prevention but left her grappling with long-lasting fears.
"I would say, if you know someone who's going through something, ask them about everything else in their life as well. They're a whole person. And they're still living," Jolie told the audience, dabbing away tears after being asked for advice by someone who had recently lost a friend.
She added: "What I really love is that there's often films that deal with cancer that become about the cancer, and the life becomes defined by the illness, instead of who is this life? Who is Maxine? Maxine through it isn’t just this. She's a mother, she's an artist, she’s sexual – all of these things I thought were really important to show, and to live forward while we’re here. Try to live as much as we can."
Jolie's mom raised the actress and her brother alone.
Oscar winner Jolie stars in writer-director Alice Winocour's French and English language ensemble as Maxine Walker, a director of low-budget horror movies commissioned by a French fashion house to direct a film for its Paris Fashion Week runway show.
As Maxine juggles work, motherhood, and her ongoing divorce proceedings, she learns she has an aggressive form of breast cancer.
A source close to the production claimed: "Angelina is still haunted by what happened to her mom, and she carries those fears with her every day.
"Even though the surgery saved her life, the trauma of watching Marcheline die young never leaves her. You could see that in the way she broke down at Toronto."
Jolie's Personal Role
The Oscar winner's mother (not pictured) died in 2007 from cancer.
Jolie's bond with her mother, particularly after her parents' divorce, has long shaped both her private life and her work. Bertrand, who was married to actor Jon Voight for nine years, raised Jolie and her brother James Haven largely alone after separating from Voight.
Friends say Jolie inherited Bertrand's devotion to her children and her protective instincts.
In Toronto, Jolie was comforted on stage by French director Alice Winocour and co-star Anyier Anei as she spoke.
She recalled a dinner during her mother's illness, when Bertrand told guests: "All people ever ask me about is cancer."
Jolie said the remark changed her perspective on how to speak to people living with disease. Insiders say Couture, which follows a filmmaker navigating the Paris fashion world while facing a cancer diagnosis, is among Jolie's most personal roles.
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Jolie's new film is titled 'Couture.'
"She was channeling her own grief and fear into that character," one source claimed. "It was her way of showing how people with illness are still so much more than their condition."
Jolie has previously said her preventive surgeries allowed her to reassure her six children.
In her New York Times essay announcing her mastectomy, she wrote: "My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under five percent.
"I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."
