Dad Jon Voight says he didn't know about Angelina Jolie's surgery

LOS ANGELES, May 15 (UPI) -- Actor Jon Voight says he first learned about daughter Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy when he read about it in The New York Times.

Jolie, a 37-year-old mother of six children, chronicled in an op-ed piece for the newspaper her decision to have the preventative surgery after she learned she carried a gene that pre-disposed her to breast and ovarian cancers.

Her mother died of ovarian cancer in 2007 at the age of 56.

Voight told the New York Daily News he found out about his daughter's surgery Tuesday, along with the rest of the world, even though he saw Jolie and her longtime partner, Brad Pitt, two days earlier at a birthday celebration for Jolie's brother, James Haven.

"But I didn't know. It wasn't obvious at all," Voight told the Daily News.

"I found out [Tuesday] morning. I was as surprised as anyone and deeply moved by the way she's handled this," he said. "I want the focus to be on the inspiration."

The actor, who has had a rocky relationship with Jolie over the years, went on to describe her as "a very extraordinary person."

"My love and admiration for my daughter can't be explained in words," he said.