different. different is good. so don t fit in. don t sit still. don t ever try to be less than what you are. and when someone tells you you are different, smile and hold your head up high and be proud. reporter: which is why she and husband brad pitt have embraced their daughter s request to be called john. tell ing vanity fair in 2007 2010 interview, she wants to be a boy. so we had to cut her hair. she likes to wear boy s everything. jolie explained she s always felt different and out of place. last week, publishing a confession in the new york times about her decision to have a preventative surgery after doctors discovered she tested positive for signs of early ovarian cancer, the type of cancer that killed her mother in 2007. jolie wrote i will not be able to have anymore children but i feel at ease with whatever will come. jolie, who lost her aunt and
blood test detected what could be signs of early ovarian cancer, the very disease that took the life of her mother. about 20,000 american women get ovarian cancer each year. most will die from it. so last week, jolie had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. a preventative surgery she calls the best option. i told myself to stay calm, to be strong and i had no reason to think i wouldn t live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren. it s a surgery that comes with severe consequences. i will not be able to have any more children, she writes, but i feel at ease with whatever will come. it s the second stunning health revelation from this leading lady. nearly two years ago, jolie underwent a preventative double mastectomy after testing positive for brca 1. women who carry this gene have 65% risk of breast cancer and 39% risk of ovarian cancer. i didn t expect there to be so much support.
this surgery and it started so many discussions here. i think women across the country and men too were discussing this. how much pressure do you think was on her before this first public appearance. brad pitt told people magazine angelina wasn t nervous to make this public appearance. this is a woman, remind everybody, she went to thecongo after having this surgery. it meant the world to them to be the symbol that life can move on and that you can be strong, you can be a confident woman after having such a preventative surgery. it s interesting so many people watching this for the celebrity of it, two well-known people, you want to see angelina on the red carpet. for people who are cancer survivors and had reconstructive surgery they re watching as well. how important is it for regular people who have undergone these surgeries to see her on the red carpet? she s become their symbol, somebody that s spoken out and made these issues come to the forefront of the national conversa
tonight on cnn. susan, these are always such tough situations. they are. is it is it a sense that they re going broader and not just in their region, that there might be good news ahead? it s really hard to say. and you know, they re playing their cards close to their vest now, but by perhaps getting more attention to this problem, they hope to not only help their daughter but certainly to help other children who are in the same situation. susan candiotti in new york, thank you very much. more than one and a half million americans are expected to get cancer this year. in a minute, we talk to author judy blume. she opens up about her own fight with cancer and reacts to angelina jolie s decision to have preventative surgery. hey america, even though she doesn t need them, cheryl burke is cha-cha-ing in depend silhouette briefs for charity, to prove that with soft fabric and waistband, the best protection looks, fits, and feels just like underwear.
gene back in 2004 but it was too late for preventative surgery. she already had breast cancer. angelina joe lee has the same gene as she wrote about in this op-ed and both genes run in the family. here s a picture he sent us of debbie martin. his father and angelina jolie s mother died. to iraq tonight. 51 people were killed in more than 160 were wounded in a series of car bombings today. this is according to iraq s interior ministry. cnn talley shows more than 300 people have been killed thus far this month on the heels of iraq seeing the deadliest month in nearly five years. expert kenneth pollack of the brookings institution says iraq is on the brink of a civil war for the last couple of months