Dancing with the Stars host Brooke Burke-Charvet believes that Melissa Etheridge’s derogatory opinion about Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy was inappropriate and inaccurate.
Etheridge believes that Jolie was driven by fear rather than bravery when the actress made the decision to undergo major surgery to eliminate her high-risk chances of developing breast cancer, we recently reported.
Etheridge – who is herself a survivor of breast cancer – said, “I wouldn’t call it the brave choice… I actually think it's the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer.”
She continued, “I would say to anybody faced with [a BRCA1 gene mutation], that choice is way down the line on the spectrum of what you can do and to really consider the advancements we've made in things like nutrition and stress levels.”
Burke-Charvet has now chastised Etheridge for her negative perspective on Jolie’s preventative decision, E! News reports.
“I feel like to comment on somebody else's decision and their motivation and to criticize it in any way feels really inappropriate for me,” she said.
Continuing, “And I bite my tongue because Angelina is not a personal friend and I can't speak about her experience, but doing something electively to avoid greats odds that you can have a fatal disease, not only is it brave, but I think it's pretty intelligent.”
Burke-Charvet spoke from personal experience since the model-actress had a thyroidectomy just last year after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
She was given the option of removing only half of the diseased gland but, for the sake of her children's futures, Burke-Charvet had her thyroid entirely removed.
She explained, “For me, as a mother of four and a wife, I went and got [a thyroidectomy]. I'm fighting to stay alive for my family—at all costs.”
Burke-Charvet will reveal more of her survival story on her E! Entertainment Special tonight at 10pm.