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(CNN) Actress Angelina Jolie revealed she had a double mastectomy.
Her secret was revealed in a New York Times op-ed published on Tuesday, “I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”
Jolie said doctors estimated she had an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer. Her mother died from the disease in 2007.
Jolie said she decided to have a series of surgeries to reduce her risk of developing the disease and that her risk of breast cancer is now below five percent.
