Angelina Jolie has rarely been one to shy away from the public eye and her latest announcement is possibly her most personal yet.
The Academy Award-winning actress wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times, published on Tuesday, detailing her recent decision to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed after a cancer scare.
The 39-year-old wrote that results of a blood test showed early signs of possible ovarian cancer, the disease that killed her mother at the age of 49.
"I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt," Jolie wrote. "I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn't live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren." She and husband Brad Pitt have six children.
"The beautiful thing about such moments in life is that there is so much clarity. You know what you live for and what matters," she wrote.
In 2013, Jolie wrote a similar opinion piece in the New York Times, revealing that she had undergone a double mastectomy as a preventative measure. In this week's piece, she wrote that surgery may not be the right option for all women in the same situation, but that "Knowledge is power."
Jolie has one film due out this year, "By the Sea," which she directed and co-stars in with Pitt.
Clint Davis is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @MrClintDavis.