FAMILY FIRST: Angelina Jolie, who lost her own mom to cancer, underwent a preventive double mastectomy for the sake of her six children with Brad Pitt. (Splash News)
She’s my hero.
Angelina Jolie has grown in my eyes overnight from a Hollywood narcissist who exists just to spoil my day — into my greatest inspiration.
For here is a goddess who has it all: wealth, fabulous clothes, pillow lips, bedroom eyes, excessive tattoos and an adorable partner in Brad Pitt — a guy she’s been slandered as having stolen from Jennifer Aniston.
She’s the mother of six kids, three scooped from orphanages around the globe.
Most of all, the actor and director has got a body that won’t quit (except when she’s accused of having an eating disorder), and a leg that, after the 2012 Oscars, was the subject of intense scrutiny and a viral Twitter feed.
But Angie, 37, yesterday revealed something that many a celeb would keep under wraps. Without a hint of self-consciousness or self-pity, she told the world that she risked her feminine form — and possibly her career — to save herself from the risk of breast cancer.
She’s not sick. But Angie wrote in The New York Times that she underwent a double mastectomy, followed by reconstructive surgery that, we hope, greatly reduces her chances of acquiring the disease.
In removing her breasts, she courageously challenged public expectations that a woman’s worth is based on her looks. She had no choice.
She did it for her kids.
Her beloved mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of cancer in 2007, at age 56, leaving a gaping void in the lives of Angie and her children.
“We often speak of ‘Mommy’s mommy,’” she wrote. “And I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me.’’
Heroically, she went public for us all:
“I chose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer.’’
Angie had herself tested for “faulty’’ genes that greatly increase the chances of developing cancer. The result was brutal.
She tested positive for BRCA1, which gave her an 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent shot of getting cancer of the ovaries. She’s not the first.
But it’s the cool and humble way that Angie presented this budding tragedy that gives her a place of honor in my heart. She silenced the inevitable childish snickers, and brought to light the scourge of breast cancer, which kills some 458,000 people a year, according to the World Health Organization.
To say Angie has lived a weird and varied life is like saying she once dug chicks. She has served as a UN goodwill ambassador in poor countries, and once wore the blood of her then-hubby Billy Bob Thornton in a vial around her neck.
She’s clashed with her dad, Jon Voight, and shared a creepy smooch with her brother, James Haven, at the 2001 Oscars. She owes the public nothing.
But at the apex of her fame, with no guarantee that she would actually get sick — and no complete assurances that treatment will work — she had surgery that, Angie wrote, reduces her chance of acquiring breast cancer to less than 5 percent.
Angie reported happily that the results of today’s reconstructive surgery can be “beautiful.’’ It’s also expensive.
Just testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 costs more than $3,000 in the United States, she wrote. The cost of preventive mastectomies and reconstruction are not always covered by medical insurance.
The best news is that Brad Pitt, who stayed at Angie’s side throughout the ordeal, still loves her. Now more than ever.
Angelina Jolie is my new role model. I pray for her good health.