Haunting picture that tells why Angelina had drastic cancer surgery
IT IS an image of what could be any happy, ordinary reunion with a proud patriarch surrounded by smiling relatives.
But this haunting picture of a young Angelina Jolie and her family taken at a party in 1977 shows the devastating effects of cancer.
It’s difficult to imagine that the cute toddler being held by her mother Marcheline would become one of the world’s most famous women. It’s harder still to comprehend the scale of the tragedy which the disease has wreaked on the family of the 39-year-old actress and activist.
Four years before the photo was taken – and 18 months before Angelina was born – her grandmother Lois died of ovarian cancer aged just 45.
Lois’s mother Virginia Gouwens had also been killed by ovarian cancer at only 53.
In the years to come, Angelina’s mother Marcheline would die of the same cancer aged 56. Breast cancer claimed Angelina’s aunt Debbie, her great-aunt Stella and her cousin Francine. Her grandfather Rolland and uncle Raleigh also died young of the disease. As Bill Day, who dated Angelina’s mother for 12 years, put it bluntly: ‘Everybody on that side of the family died of cancer. Angie was acutely aware cancer was killing her mother’s side.
‘Her mother died. Her uncle died. Her grandfather and her grandmother too.’
Angelina’s mother was discovered to have the faulty BRCA1 gene as did her aunt Debbie. Angelina has it, too – and carrying the gene gives an 87 per cent chance of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent chance of having ovarian cancer.
This was the reason she opted for a double mastectomy in 2013 followed by the removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes this month. She once said: ‘There is no longevity on my mother’s side. My grandmother also died young so my mother always thought it could happen to her.’
But by undergoing preventive surgery, the mother-of-six hopes to put an end to the cycle of loss.
Revealing her latest procedure, she said: ‘ I feel feminine and grounded in the choices I am mak- ing for myself and my family. My children will never have to say “Mom died of ovarian cancer”.’
MARCHELINE, Angelina’s mother, had lived in fear of the disease after seeing it claim her own mother. She had studied acting and met actor Jon Voight while playing a role in one of his films.
They were married in 1971 and had two children, James and Ange- lina, but split up in 1976 when Angelina was just a year old.
Marcheline was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1999 and died in 2007. Former partner Mr Day said: ‘She had a very strict regime as she believed if she drank lemon and water every day it would help her immune system. Angelina would see this and know what it was for.’
Angelina said in an emotional 2011 TV interview: ‘My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences. Everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. I will try my best, but I don’t think I ever will be. She was the most generous, loving woman. She’s better than me.’ Marcheline’s sister DEBBIE
MARTIN died aged 61 in May 2013, two weeks after her niece Angelina announced that she had had both her breasts removed.
Debbie also had the faulty BRCA1 gene and opted to have her ovaries removed but then discovered she had breast cancer. Angelina’s uncle RALEIGH
BERTRAND was killed by prostate cancer in 2009, two years after the death of his sister Marcheline. His son Francis said: ‘We are aware of taking action t o war d s preventing it. It has devastated our family, so we support what Angie has done, of course.’ Angelina’s grandfather ROLLAND
BERTRAND died of sweat gland cancer in 1985 aged 61. Born in Illinois, he served during World War II and was injured during the advance on the Rhine.
He married Lois Gouwens, a model who temped in a department store, in 1949 and they had a daughter Marcia Lynne, known as Marcheline, Angelina’s mother. Debbie and Raleigh followed.
The family moved to Beverly Hills in 1966 when Rolland got a managerial job at a Los Angeles Hotel.
His wife Lois died of ovarian cancer in 1973. Rolland met German second wife Elke while touring Europe when he was recently widowed and they wed in 1975.
Rolland moved to Las Vegas where he owned a delicatessen called Little King with Elke. Angelina and his other grandchildren were regular visitors.
Cancer also claimed the life of Angelina’s cousin, FRANCINE
BERTRAND, who died of breast cancer. Rolland’s sister and Angelina’s great-aunt STELLA LAWS is understood to have died of breast cancer. She and her husband Paul had two children.
Debbie’s widower Ron Martin, 69, who released this photo, set up the Bertrand BRCA Foundation to raise awareness of the genetic fault.
‘I feel feminine and grounded’ ‘We support what Angie has done’