During the premiere for Brad Pitt’s zombie film “World War Z,” the actor opened up a little about falling in love with his partner Angelina Jolie.  The actress underwent a double mastectomy in February and the premiere marked her first public appearance since having the surgery.

Pitt called Jolie a hero for the tough decision she made to have her breasts removed.  While some women would probably prefer to keep such a delicate situation private, Jolie has been very public about her decision, which she first opened up on last month, and hopes being so public about it will raise awareness.

“That’s who I fell in love with from the very beginning,” Pitt said. “The person that you see now is the person that I’ve always known and she’s heroic and incredibly strong and will attack any problem head-on and make it work.”

After discovering that she had an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer due to a defective BRCA1 gene, Jolie opted to have the surgery.  Jolie’s mother Marcheline Bertrand died at age 57 after a battle with breast cancer and her grandmother died at age 45 because of ovarian cancer. Jolie also recently lost her aunt to breast cancer and had to miss the funeral because it coincided with the “World War Z” premiere date.  Having the surgery has decreased Jolie’s chances of developing breast cancer to under 5 percent.  Even though her breasts were removed, some related tissue remains behind where the cancer could potentially develop, but Jolie and her family can rest easy after cutting her chances by so much.

Jolie and Pitt have been together since 2005 and have three biological children and three adopted children together.  Recently Pitt opened up more about his life in “Esquire” and said life has never been better.  “I have a handful of close friends and I have my family and I haven’t known life to be any happier,” Pitt said.  Jolie and Pitt haven’t tied the knot yet and say that they won’t get married until marriage equality laws are in place.

“World War Z” will open in the U.S. on June 21.  Pitt directed and starred in the film, which is based on the popular “World War Z” book by Max Brooks.  Pitt stars as Gerry Lane, a United Nations employee who is trying to stop the zombie pandemic that will inevitably lead to the downfall of world governments and end civilization as they know it.