Angelina Jolie: 'My scars are a choice' after double mastectomy

Angelina Jolie said her double mastectomy scars "are a choice" she is grateful to have been able to make. "My scars are a choice I made to stay here as long as I could with my children. I love my scars because of that. And I’m grateful that I had the opportunity and the choice to do something proactive about my health," the actress said in an interview.

She added that she has always been more interested in the scars and the life people carry, and not drawn to a perfect idea of a life that has no scars. The decision felt especially meaningful after losing her mother to cancer when she was young, she said, and she is now raising her children without a grandmother.

Jolie underwent a preventive mastectomy in 2013 after testing positive for a mutation in the BRCA1 gene and being told she faced a high likelihood of breast cancer. She later published a first-hand account saying the surgery reduced her estimated risk dramatically and allowed her to tell her children they did not need to fear losing her to the disease.

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