LOS ANGELES, May 14 (UPI) -- Actress Angelina Jolie revealed in an op-ed article she wrote for The New York Times she had a preventative double mastectomy this year.
"The truth is I carry a 'faulty' gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer," Jolie, the mother of six young children, wrote. "Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy."