The Hollywood A-lister speaks out on childbirth and her grief over her mother Marcheline’s death in poignant new interview

ANGELINA Jolie has opened up about her own preventive cancer surgery – admitting that she wished her late mum had been given the same option.

The US actress, who had her ovaries removed in 2015 and a double mastectomy in 2013, spoke emotionally about how grateful she was for being given information about different types of cancer treatment.

Angelina is a role model mum who gives a great deal to charity. Credit: Rex Features
But Angelina , 41, revealed her heartache at her mum, Marcheline Bertrand, not being given the same information – after she died in January 2007 following an eight-year battle with ovarian cancer.

The telly star also admitted that she wished her mum, who founded a charity called Give Love Give Life which spread awareness of the condition, had been given “more years” with her family.

UN refugee agency envoy Angelina visited the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos. Credit: Getty Images

When asked about going public with her cancer treatment, Angelina said: “When you go through something and you learn about yourself and your body and anything medical you feel, it really wasn’t a decision.

“It was just that I thought that I had gained information that I wish my mother had have known and I wish she had the option.

Angelina and Brad Pitt have battled through adversity. Credit: Reuters
“I wish she had the surgery in fact and it might have given her more years with my family and I wanted to just speak with other women and talk about options.

“That is simply that, it is an option. I don’t encourage every woman to make the decision I made but I think it is really important that we all share anything we learn.

“I have gained so much in my life through my mother and through my daughter and through friendships with other women.”

Angelina, who has lost eight family members to cancer, also admitted that it made her feel “emotional” to think that women went and got checked and discovered that they had caught something in time, as a result of her own actions.

The Changeling star, later spoke about her distress at discovering local Namibian hospitals had poor facilities and no ultrasound machines for pregnant women – at the time she was giving birth to her daughter.

Mum Angelina talks for the first time about her daughter Shilohs birth. Credit: Flynet UK

She said: “I went to a hospital once in Namibia where I was having my daughter. I was in breech.

“I needed a C-section and I knew I was in breach because I had had the money to have an ultrasound.

“But I found even the local hospital with many, many women and this was a good hospital did not have an ultrasound machine.

Play Video
“So the amount of women that didn’t know they were in breach, the amount of babies and complications when they got into labour with one simple machine.

“A woman like me in a camp with two babies in breech with twins probably wouldn’t have survived and probably wouldn’t have made it this far if I was a refugee.”

Play Video
The mother-of-six later spoke about how none of her children are keen to follow in her footsteps and become actors.

She admitted: “None of my kids want to be actors…They actually are very interested in being musicians.”