Jolie Aunt Dies of Breast Cancer

She loses cancer battle weeks after Jolie reveals surgery
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 27, 2013 1:32 AM CDT
Jolie Aunt Dies of Breast Cancer
In this Aug. 13, 2003 photo, Angelina Jolie arrives at the Mathaeser cinema in Munich to attend the German premiere of "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.    (AP Photo/Uwe Lein, File)

Angelina Jolie's aunt has died of breast cancer just two weeks after Jolie revealed that she had a double mastectomy to prevent the same disease, E! Online reports. Debbie Martin, 61, was the younger sister of Jolie's mother, whose death from ovarian cancer in 2007 led to Jolie's decision to have surgery. Martin, like Jolie, had the defective BRCA1 gene, but she didn't know it until after her 2004 cancer diagnosis, her husband says. "Had we known, we certainly would have done exactly what Angelina did," he tells the AP. (More Angelina Jolie stories.)

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