Less than two weeks after telling the world about her double mastectomy, Angelina Jolie lost her aunt to breast cancer early Monday.

Debbie Martin died at Palomar Hospital in Escondido, Calif. near San Diego at 1:50 a.m., said her husband, Ron Martin to E! Online. She was 61.

Martin, who was the younger sister of Jolie's mom, Marcheline Bertrand, had the "same defective BRCA1 gene that Jolie does, but didn't know until after the 2004 cancer diagnosis."

After losing Betrand to ovarian cancer in 2007, Jolie had recently said that she underwent the preventive surgery to decrease her 87 percent risk of getting breast cancer.

Martin's husband wished his wife would have underwent a mastectomy, too. "Had we known, we certainly would have done exactly what Angelina did," he said in a phone interview.

He told E! that Jolie had been in touch during the week, and Jolie's brother, Jamie had stayed to support both Martin and her husband in their difficult time."They both loved Debbie very much, and although Angie is not able to come right now she has sent her love and support which was very nice...," he said.

Jolie had visited the couple several times since Martin's diagnosis, and they were proud of the Oscar-winning actresses' decision to go through with the mastectomy.

Martin is survived by her husband and two sons, Chris and Cory.