Angelina Jolie Looks At Age As A 'Victory' After Her Mother Passed Too Young

Angelina Jolie has taken a different perspective when it comes to aging. Her approach is that getting older is a gift, something to be cherished by those who are lucky enough to receive it. Her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died in 2007 when she was 56 after being diagnosed with ovarian and breast cancer. Jolie was 31 years old when she lost her mother. Because of this tragedy, Jolie looks on aging with a much kinder eye.

"I do like being older. I feel much more comfortable in my forties than I did when I was younger. Maybe because... I don't know... maybe because my mom didn't live very long, so there's something about age that feels like a victory instead of a sadness for me," she told Vogue in March 2021. "I'm looking forward to my fifties – I feel that I'm gonna hit my stride in my fifties." Rather than seeing aging as a misfortune, Jolie has taken the stance that it's something to be cherished and honored. 

The loss gave her a different calculus for measuring life. But the loss also pushed Jolie to make some changes, and Jolie was proactive about her health in light of what happened to her mother. After discovering that she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation, linked to developing breast cancer, Jolie had a preventative double mastectomy in 2013. While this was a wise precautionary measure, Jolie has not confirmed having any other plastic surgery to combat signs of aging. 

Angelina Jolie's perspective on getting older, shaped by the death of her mother, has changed the way she perceives aging. In 2010, Jolie told the Daily Mail that plastic surgery wasn't in her future. "I haven't had anything done, and I don't think I will," she said (via Us Weekly). "But if it makes somebody happy, then that's up to them. I'm not in somebody else's skin to know what makes them feel better about themselves. But I don't plan to do it myself." As such, Jolie has joined the ranks of older celebs who aren't playing by society's beauty rules. While it feels as though plastic surgery is pervasive in Hollywood, there are many who are nixing expectations around an obsession with youthfulness. Maggie Gyllenhaal's face evolution is an ode to aging gracefully, and Elizabeth Banks' secret to aging gracefully couldn't be more simple. So Jolie is in good company. 

This isn't to say, however, that Jolie hasn't generated some gossip about potential tweaks. When her 2024 film "Maria" premiered, an insider told Life & Style that Jolie got some Botox and filler to look fresh for the press tour. "The hope is that Angelina doesn't succumb to the temptation of going overboard like so many of her Hollywood peers," the source added. It's worth noting that Jolie herself did not confirm this. And if she did have a few minor procedures, that's her prerogative.