Angelina Jolie opens up on breast cancer battle in new film 'Couture'

Angelina Jolie has shared a moving reflection on her health journey, explaining why she views her double mastectomy scars as a badge of motherhood and survival.

Speaking with France Inter, the 50-year-old Oscar winner dismissed the pursuit of physical perfection, noting: "Well, I've always been someone more interested in the scars and the life that people carry."

The mother-of-six underwent the preventative surgery in 2013 after discovering she carried the BRCA1 gene, which gave her an 87 per cent risk of breast cancer.

Having lost her own mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to the disease at just 56, Jolie’s decision was deeply personal. "I see my scars are a choice I made to do what I could do to stay here as long as I could with my children," she explained.

"I love my scars because of that... and I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to have the choice to do something proactive about my health."

Jolie’s personal history intersects with her latest role in the film Couture, where she plays a filmmaker navigating a breast cancer diagnosis.

For the actress, these marks are a testament to a life fully lived rather than a source of shame. She concluded: "If you get to the end of your life and you haven't made [a big, you know], you haven't made mistakes, you haven't made a mess, you don't have scars, you haven't lived a full enough life, I think."

By showing her scars, she continues to empower women to take control of their medical destinies.