Brad Pitt: 'Kids turned our home into a post-op adventure for mum'

Brad Pitt has opened up further about his fiancee Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy surgery, revealing he and their six kids set up a post-op haven to aid the actress' recovery.

Jolie went public with her big reveal in an article in Tuesday's (14May13) New York Times, revealing she underwent the preventative surgery in February (13) in a bid to keep breast cancer at bay.

Pitt issued a statement on Tuesday morning, calling his partner's actions "heroic" and then sat down for interviews to promote his new movie World War Z but few people wanted to chat about the film.

Asked about Jolie's double mastectomy shocker, the movie star told USA Today, "I'm quite emotional about it, of course. She could have stayed absolutely private about it and I don't think anyone would have been none the wiser with such good results.

"But it was really important to her to share the story and that others would understand it doesn't have to be a scary thing. In fact, it can be an empowering thing, and something that makes you stronger and us stronger."

And Pitt told the publication that he was amazed with his wife-to-be as she kept commitments amid her post-op recovery, revealing she visited the Congo, London for the G-8 Foreign Ministers Conference and New York to honor Pakistani teen Malala Yousafzai "during Stage 2... Literally it was just weeks after she'd had truly major surgery."

He admits he did what he could to make sure her return from hospital was as pleasant as possible - and the couple's six kids helped: "We set up our own little post-op recovery that became pretty fun. You make an adventure out of it.

"(It has been) an emotional and beautifully-inspiring few months. And I'll tell you, it's such a wonderful relief to come through this and not have a spectre hanging over our heads. To know that that's not going to be something that's going to affect us. My most proudest (sic) thing is our family. This isn't going to get that."

Jolie opted to have the surgery and reconstruction after learning she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation, which doctors estimated gave her an 87 per cent chance of developing breast cancer.