Angelina Jolie explains why she decided to show mastectomy scars in magazine photo shoot
For the first time in public, actress, director, and humanitarian Angelina Jolie decided to bare her double mastectomy scars during a photo shoot for TIME France.
The photos appeared in TIME Magazine's first French edition, which launched last week.
"I share these scars with many women I love. And I'm always moved when I see other women share theirs," Jolie, 50, told the magazine. "I wanted to join them, knowing that TIME France would be sharing information about breast health, prevention, and knowledge about breast cancer."
As reported by PEOPLE Magazine, the Oscar winner underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2013, six years after her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, passed away at 56 from ovarian and breast cancer.
In a 2013 op-ed piece she wrote for The New York Times entitled My Medical Choice, Jolie shared that she has a gene, BRCA1, which, according to doctors, raises Jolie's risk of breast cancer to 87% and ovarian cancer to 50%.
Two years after her double mastectomy, Jolie had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed, as well.
Because of the measures she took, Jolie wrote that her breast cancer risk dropped to under 5%.
Jolie's knowledge of breast cancer greatly informed her performance in the Alice Winocour film Coutures, set to be released in February 2026. In it, Jolie plays Maxine Walker, an American filmmaker who learns she has breast cancer in the middle of Paris Fashion Week.
"It's a very personal story for me," Jolie told TIME France. "Too often, films about women's struggles—especially cancer—talk about endings and sadness, rarely about life. Alice has made a film about life, and that's precisely why the sensitive subjects it addresses are handled with such delicacy. Hardships, illnesses, and pain are part of our existence, but what matters is how we face them."
"I love this film because it tells a story that goes far beyond the journey of a sick person: it shows life. It was this luminous perspective that touched me and made me want to play this role," Jolie added.
The humanitarian took the opportunity to also advocate for women's healthcare.
"Every woman should always be able to determine her own healthcare journey and have the information she needs to make informed choices: genetic testing and screening should be accessible and affordable for women with clear risk factors or a significant family history," she said.
"When I shared my experience in 2013, it was to encourage informed choices. Healthcare decisions must be personal, and women must have the information and support they need to make those choices. Access to screening and care should not depend on financial resources or where someone lives," Jolie added.
