Angelina Jolie has reportedly been preparing her children for her eventual death, citing her family history of cancer and her own health choices.
Jolie's Approach to Motherhood
“I raise my kids almost preparing them for my absence and not as much preparing to be a grandmother,” the Oscar-winning actor told Variety. “That’s what happens when you consider death as a reality.”
In her latest film, “Couture,” Jolie plays a filmmaker who receives a breast cancer diagnosis, a subject familiar to her. In 2013, she underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carries a mutated BRCA1 gene, which significantly increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancers.
Family History of Cancer
Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of breast and ovarian cancer at age 56. “She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms,” Jolie wrote in a New York Times op-ed. “But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.”
Jolie told Variety that she has never felt she would have a long life. “It’s very sobering in realizing – like the [doctor] says in the film — we’re all going to die, we’re all not here forever,” she said. “I think having lost my mom young and never met my grandmother, I have never lived feeling like I’m going to have a long life.”
Living with Urgency
“I’m already past the age when my mother was diagnosed,” Jolie added. “I may struggle from almost feeling like I can’t live in the moment because I feel like I have to push and rush because time’s running out.”
Now that her children are older—most are nearly 18—they encourage her to embrace life. “My kids are almost all 18, so now they want to see me traveling the world, they want me to get out and do things,” Jolie said. “They know me more than anybody, and they still like me, which says a lot. I think they’re very encouraging of me kind of getting back to aspects of myself that maybe I hadn’t felt as free to do.”
