Angelina Jolie Is Happy As Ever at Age 40: 'I Actually Love Being in Menopause'
Angelina Jolie is relishing the premature onset of menopause.
"I actually love being in menopause," the 40-year-old actress tells The Daily Telegraph in a story published on Sunday.
In the interview, Jolie gets personal regarding the preventive surgery she experienced in early 2013 to curb her chances of cancer. After learning she had an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer, Jolie underwent a double mastectomy. She later had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed as well, the result of a health scare Jolie wrote about in March in a New York Times op-ed.
"I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes," she wrote, noting the procedure would cause early menopause. "But I feel at ease with whatever will come, not because I am strong but because this is a part of life. It is nothing to be feared."
WATCH: Angelina Jolie Admits She Didn't Want to Do a Nude Scene After Her Double Mastectomy
Now, over six months later, Jolie tells The Daily Telegraph, “I haven’t had a terrible reaction to it, so I’m very fortunate. I feel older, and I feel settled being older."
The mom of six goes on to speak contently about her age: “I feel happy that I’ve grown up. I don’t want to be young again.”
For Jolie, deciding to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes as a cancer prevention tactic was influenced by her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died after a long battle with cancer. During a recent interview with Tom Brokaw on Today, Jolie revealed that she even shared some of the same doctors and nurses as her mother.
WATCH: Angelina Jolie’s Mother Asked Her Doctor to Promise to Remove the Actress’ Ovaries
"The doctor that did my ovary surgery was my mother's doctor. And apparently my mother had said to her, 'Promise me you will take Angie's ovaries out,'" the actress said.
Jolie's husband, Brad Pitt, was there by her side every step of the way and commended his wife for having "no vanity."
"It was mature," he told Today. "...It was just another one of those things in life that makes you tighter, and she was doing it for the kids, and she was doing it for her family so we could be together."
Watch Jolie and Pitt's joint interview from Today below.