Veteran actor Jon Voight said he was “as surprised as anyone” to learn about Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy.
Voight said he saw his daughter after she had undergone the surgery, and had no idea that she had had her breasts removed .
“My love and admiration for my daughter can’t be explained in words,” the 74-year-old said. “I saw her two days ago with my son Jamie. We all got together for his birthday, with her and Brad. But I didn’t know. It wasn’t obvious at all. I found out [Tuesday] morning.”
Voight added, “I was as surprised as anyone and deeply moved by the way she’s handled this. She’s a very extraordinary person, the way she examined it, and what she shared.”
Angelina Jolie opted for a double mastectomy after learning she carries a gene that increases her risk for breast and ovarian cancer . She also decided to have her ovaries removed for the same reason.
Although they have reconciled in recent years, Voight and Jolie (as well as son James Haven, or Jamie) were estranged for several years. Jolie accused her father of cheating on Jolie’s mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, causing their divorce in 1980. Jolie and Voight had a strained relationship for many years, but by 2001, they had made up, and Voight appeared in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider with his daughter.
In 2002, Jolie filed a request to drop Voight as her surname, and the request was granted in September of that year. Voight claimed his daughter had “serious mental problems,” and Jolie later said she was no longer interested in having a relationship with her father. It wasn’t until two years after Bertrand’s death in 2007 from ovarian cancer that Jolie and Voight reconciled again, this time at the urging of Brad Pitt. He did the same thing when he was married to Jennifer Aniston after she became estranged from her mother.
Because of their rocky relationship, Voight said he “completely” understood why Jolie didn’t tell him ahead of time that she gotten a double mastectomy. He wanted “the focus to be on the inspiration,” he said. He also said he spoke to her after he learned about the procedure, and Jolie “educated [him] on this stuff.”
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