She decided to undergo surgery for the sake of her health

In a 2013 article for The New York Times, Angelina Jolie opened out to her admirers and wrote about her mother, revealing that she didn't get to meet several of her grandkids before she passed away. The actress then said, "We frequently refer to "mommy's mommy," and I often find myself attempting to explain the condition that caused her to pass away. They questioned whether I might experience the same thing."

Jolie said that because to her family history, which includes both her mother and grandmother receiving cancer diagnoses at various times in their life, her physicians had determined that she was "high risk" and might acquire breast or ovarian cancer. She chose to have a double mastectomy as a precaution, and she is glad she did. She penned, "To let other women know that choosing to have a mastectomy was not an easy choice, I felt compelled to write this. But it's a decision I'm very glad I made."

The actress went on to say that the operation had significantly increased her odds, and she urged other women to get tested and have a proactive attitude. Jolie lost one of her aunts to breast cancer just two weeks after her operation (via The Guardian). The BBC said that Jolie underwent additional surgeries in 2015 to protect herself from the chance of contracting ovarian cancer.