Summary Jolie's aunt Debbie Martin died at age 61 Sunday.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Angelina Jolie s aunt has died of breast cancer less than two weeks after Jolie had a double mastectomy to avoid the disease.
Jolie s aunt Debbie Martin died at age 61 Sunday in a San Diego-area hospital, her husband Ron Martin tells The Associated Press.
Debbie Martin was the younger sister of Jolie s mother Marcheline Bertrand, whose own death from cancer in 2007 inspired the surgery that Jolie described in a May 14 New York Times op-ed.
According to her husband, Debbie Martin had the same defective BRCA1 gene that Jolie does, but didn t know it until after her 2004 cancer diagnosis.
He says had his wife known in advance of her genetic risk, "she would have done exactly what Angelina did."
Martin s death was first reported by E! News.
