By Morning Express with Robin Meade staff
updated 4:29 AM EDT, Tue May 14, 2013
Angelina Jolie revealed that she had a preventive double mastectomy.
The actress wrote in a New York Times op-ed that she had the surgery in February after learning that she carries a gene that significantly increases her chances of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
Her mother died of breast cancer in 2007. In the op-ed, she wrote: "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 goes on to say: "I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer. It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options." Other celebrities have chosen double mastectomies after learning they had the gene, too. In 2008, Christina Applegate did it after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. And Sharon Osbourne had the surgery last year.