Jolie praises Pitt for support during her surgeries

Los Angeles: Actress-filmmaker Angelina Jolie has praised her husband and actor Brad Pitt for his support during her preventative double mastectomy in 2013, and the surgery to remove her ovaries earlier this year.

“I knew through the surgeries that he was on my side and that this wasn't something where I was going to feel less of a woman, because my husband wasn't going to let that happen,” Jolie said in a joint interview with Pitt on talk show “Today” to promote their forthcoming film “By The Sea”, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Jolie had the double mastectomy at the age of 37, after learning that she had an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer due to a defective BRCA1 gene.

Due to the same anomaly, she had a 50 percent risk of developing ovarian cancer and decided to get the oophorectomy two years later, which brought upon early menopause.

Pitt said that his role was to “support” Jolie as much as possible during that time.

He said he would do “whatever's got to be done to keep the family together, and keep the family together as long as possible is going to be done.”

The couple, who have six children, got married in August 2014 after nine years together.

“By The Sea” will release on November 13.