Angelina Jolie's Secret Struggle
Jan. 12 2016, Updated 12:22 p.m. ET
Angelina Jolie admitted tuesday that she recently underwent surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes. Now, RadarOnline.com has gallery of her recent photos that reveal how the Oscar winner and mother-of-six kept her cancer battle a secret from the world.
Angelina Jolie admitted tuesday that she recently underwent surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes. Now, RadarOnline.com has gallery of her recent photos that reveal how the Oscar winner and mother-of-six kept her cancer battle a secret from the world.
Jolie, seen here hours after her announcement, admitted that she's been secretly dealing with her medical crisis for weeks.
In a NY Times Op-Ed, she detailed the lengths she went to to keep her cancer battle secret, saying "I had been planning this for some time. … But I felt I still had months to make the date." On March 14, the week before her surgery, no one would have guessed what decision she was weighing.
However, the Oscar winning actress was told by her doctor, "There are a number of inflammatory markers that are elevated, and taken together they could be a sign of early cancer."
Jolie explained that she immediately called her husband, Brad Pitt, who boarded a plane and flew from France to Los Angeles.
Jolie, 39, said she had a test with the same doctor who treated her mother, the late Marcheline Bertrand. "Nothing in the examination or ultrasound was concerning," she wrote. "I was relieved that if it was cancer, it was most likely in the early stages. If it was somewhere else in my body, I would know in five days." Amid the drama, on February 10, she flew to London for a business meeting.
A mother of six, Jolie wrote that she spent those days with Pitt by her side, doing normal parenting things and not alarming her rambunctious brood.
"I passed those five days in a haze, attending my children's soccer game, and working to stay calm and focused," she wrote.
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Jolie sought more than one opinion for her medical treatment, secretly meeting doctors to asses her situation. "In my case, the Eastern and Western doctors I met agreed that surgery to remove my tubes and ovaries was the best option," she wrote, "because on top of the BRCA gene, three women in my family have died from cancer."
The Mr. and Mrs. Smith star said after the waiting period there was one major drawback: "I was full of happiness, although the radioactive tracer meant I couldn't hug my children."
She didn't let her health crisis interrupt her humanitarian efforts: In January, she returned from a trip to Iraq as UN envoy.
At the Critics Choice Awards in January, no one would have guessed her cancer secret.
She and Pitt were standing strong at an event in January.
She was radiant at the Vatican in January 2015.
Jolie was the picture of elegance at a Hollywood Reporter Women In Entertainment dinner in December 2014.
In December, she posed for a selfie with a fan.
Most importantly, Jolie — seen at the UK premiere of Unbroken last November — says she had the secret surgery because she loves her family: "I know my children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer.'"