Advertisement

Jolie Makes First Post-Surgery Appearance

Angelina Jolie has made her first public appearance since revealing she had preventative surgery to remove her ovaries.

She appeared at the 2015 Kids' Choice awards in Los Angeles, where she was named Favourite Villain for her role as the title character in dark fantasy film Maleficent.

The 39-year-old, who was accompanied by two of her children, told the audience: "Thank you so much to all the kids who voted.

"I want to say that when I was little - like Maleficent - I was told that I was different.

"And I felt out of place, and too loud, too full of fire, never good at sitting still, never good at fitting in.

"And then one day I realised something. Something I hope you all realise. Different is good!"

It came less than a week after the Oscar-winning actress revealed she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed after doctors detected possible signs of cancer.

She wrote about the procedure, which she had two weeks ago, in an opinion piece in the New York Times entitled Diary of a Surgery.

"It is not possible to remove all risk, and the fact is I remain prone to cancer," she wrote.

She also had a double mastectomy in 2013 after it was found she had the faulty BRCA1 gene, which sharply increased the chance of her developing breast and ovarian cancer.

Jolie, who is married to actor Brad Pitt and has six children, also wrote about her decision to have that operation.

She said having her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed was "a less complex surgery than the mastectomy, but its effects are more severe".

The operation, called laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, brings on early menopause.

Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died in 2007 after fighting cancer for 10 years. Her grandmother and aunt also died of cancer.