Angie: Life Didn’t Stop During Surgery

The 37-year-old looked effortlessly beautiful as she attended the 2013 American Society Cinematographers Awards in Hollywood on Feb. 10. No one would have guessed that just eight days before, Angie began the first of her many medical procedures that the mastectomies involved. On Feb. 2, she underwent a procedure known as a 'nipple delay' — surgery that increases the chance of saving the nipple.

On April 4, Angie attended the 4th Annual Women in the World Summit in the Big Apple. "During that time I have been able to keep this private and to carry on with my work," she said about being able to juggle her public duties and personal matters.

Angie enjoyed a day out with her boys Pax and Knox at FAO Schwarz in NYC on April 5. Since having the double mastectomy, the Oscar winner has lowered her risk of getting breast cancer from 87 percent to under five percent. "I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."

On April 12, she was just 15 days away from finishing her medical procedures. She's seen here with her oldest son Maddox arriving in LAX from London. "They know that I love them and will do anything to be with them as long as I can," the actress wrote in her op-ed piece for the New York Times about her children. "On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity."

The Salt star flashed her famous grin as she made her way to Los Angeles International Airport on March 27. Losing her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to ovarian cancer in 2007 caused Angie to get the preventative double mastectomy in order to lower her chances of getting cancer. "We often speak of 'Mommy’s mommy,' and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us," says the Oscar winner of her and fiance Brad Pitt's six kids. "They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a 'faulty' gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer."