Angelina Jolie Makes First Red Carpet Appearance Since Double Mastectomy Announcement

                                           
                                                   Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on June 2

Angelina Jolie typically attracts attention when she hits the red carpet, but her appearance Sunday at the London premiere of "World War Z" was decidedly different.
Four months to the day after the Academy Award-winning actress started the three months of medical procedures necessitated for her preventive double mastectomy — and nearly three weeks after going public with her decision in a New York Times op-ed piece — she made a triumphant return to the red carpet, on the arm of fiancé Brad Pitt, and looked more radiant than ever.

The 37-year-old wore a floor-length black dress with layers of draped fabric on the high-neck top and a sheer panel across her stomach, giving it a subtle peek-a-boo effect.

Jolie posed alone for photographers — with her megawatt grin on full display — as well as arm-in-arm with "WWZ" star Pitt. At one point they posed face-to-face just holding each other and smiling.

Pitt, who was also dressed in all black, had his long hair down for the special occasion. While he's kept his locks mostly in a messy ponytail at recent events, it looked heavily styled — and is almost as long as Jolie's.

        

The couple also signed autographs for fans, one of whom gave Jolie a white teddy bear that said on it "I love you soooo... much." She clutched the stuffed animal as she worked the red carpet.

Once inside the Empire Cinema, the couple was joined by two of their six children. Maddox, 11, and Pax, 9, stuck close to their parents, but posed for a quick photo before the movie.

On May 14, Jolie shared her medical decision in an article she wrote for the New York Times. Noting she carried the "faulty" gene BRCA1, she shared that her doctors told her she had an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. Because her mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, died in 2007 following a seven-year battle with ovarian cancer, she elected to have a double mastectomy. According to People magazine, she plans to have another surgery to remove her ovaries.

    
The impact from Jolie's announcement was immediate — and words of support flowed in, including from Pitt, who called her "absolutely heroic."

However, Jolie's return to the red carpet must have been a bittersweet one. While she is the picture of health and looked more gorgeous than ever, she is quietly dealing with the loss of another loved one. Her mother's younger sister, Debbie Martin, died last week after a battle with breast cancer. Martin's funeral was to take place on Sunday as well — though her widower, Ron, knew Jolie wouldn't be in attendance as she already committed to attend the "WWZ" premiere with Pitt.

"Angelina will be in London … so she won't be able to attend," Ron Martin told E! News last week. "But she has been in touch with us and with various other members of the family, which has obviously been lovely and has meant a lot to us."