(NBC)
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will open up about her preventative mastectomy on Monday’s “Today.” In excerpts from the rare joint interview, the couple discuss facing her health battle together, and choosing to co-star in the Jolie-directed film By The Sea.
Jolie shares, “I knew through the surgeries that he was on my side and that this wasn’t something where I was gonna feel less of a woman, because my husband wasn’t gonna let that happen.” As Gossip Cop reported, the actress had her second operation earlier this year, getting her ovaries removed. Her chances of getting breast and ovarian cancer are now significantly diminished.
With Jolie sitting by his side, Pitt is asked by Tom Brokaw how he saw his “role” in the situation. The actor replies that his job was to give “support.” He explains, “Whatever’s got to be done to keep the family together, and keep the family together as long as possible is gonna be done. This was her charge, no question.”
“It’s a scary decision,” he continues. “There’s many things that can go wrong and go many different directions.” Jolie similarly says that there was no way to predict how taking her health battle public would be received. “You never know what a reaction is. You have to just make the choices you make in life. I made the choices I made because I believed they were right for me,” she says.
Brokaw also asks the stars about their decision to play an unhappily-married couple in their new movie. “You have one of the most secure marriages in Hollywood, and this is about the two of you and a deeply troubled marriage,” points out the veteran journalist. “Was this a big risk on your part?”
Jolie answers, “I’m counting on the audience to know that if it was close to us at all, we could never make this film. It’s because we’re actually very, very stable, and these aren’t our issues.” Gossip Cop will have video of the full interview on Monday.
