Los Angeles: Actor Angelina Jolie has said she loves the “scars” on her body following her double mastectomy in 2013, describing them as a reminder of the choice she made to stay healthy for her children.

In an interview with French radio station France Inter, the 50-year-old actor said she has never pursued a “perfect” idea of life and does not see scars as something to be hidden.

“Well, I’ve always been someone more interested in the scars and the life that people carry,” Jolie said.

“I’m not drawn to some perfect idea of a life that has no scars. So no, I think, hey, you know, I see my scars are a choice I made to do what I could do to stay here as long as I could with my children,” she added.

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Jolie also reflected on losing her mother at a young age and raising her children without a grandmother, which made her health decisions even more significant.

“I love my scars because of that, you know, and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to have the choice to do something proactive about my health. I lost my mum when I was young, and I’m raising my children without a grandmother.”

“So for me, no, I think this is life. And if you get to the end of your life and you haven’t made [a big, you know], you haven’t made mistakes, you haven’t made a mess, you don’t have scars, you haven’t lived a full enough life, I think,” Jolie concluded.

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Jolie’s mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, died in 2007 at the age of 56 after a battle with cancer. In a May 2013 New York Times op-ed titled “My Medical Choice,” Jolie revealed she carried the BRCA1 gene, which placed her at very high risk of breast cancer. Doctors told her the risk was about 87 per cent.