GOSSIPS over the years have scoffed that Friends actress Jennifer Aniston was too much of a “selfish workaholic” to start a family.
Yet, away from the intense public glare, she was in fact enduring an emotion-wrought, 20-year battle to have a baby.
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In a rare interview, Jennifer admits she was affected by strangers with no knowledge of her situation judging her for not having kids.
She told Harper’s Bazaar UK magazine: “They didn’t know my story, or what I’d been going through over the past 20 years to try to pursue a family, because I don’t go out there and tell them my medical woes.
“That’s not anybody’s business. But there comes a point when you can’t not hear it — the narrative about how I won’t have a baby, won’t have a family, because I’m selfish, a workaholic.
“It does affect me. I’m just a human being.”
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Jennifer, 56 — who was married to Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005, then actor and filmmaker Justin Theroux from 2015 to 2018 — previously said “the baby-making road” had been challenging for her.
“I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour’,” she told Allure magazine in 2022.
“So here I am today. The ship has sailed. But I have zero regrets. My late thirties, forties, I’d gone through really hard s**t, and if it wasn’t for going through that, I would’ve never become who I was meant to be. I was trying to get pregnant.”
She said the “years and years of speculation was really hard”, adding: I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it.”
In her latest interview, The Morning Show star said she spoke up on behalf of others in her situation, “because I knew a lot of women at the time who were trying to have kids, who were dealing with IVF”.
In the past, Jennifer has made it clear that claims her marriage to Brad ended when she was 35 because she didn’t want children were an “absolute lie”.
Fight Club actor Brad went on to have six kids with actress Angelina Jolie — Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne — before the couple split in 2016.
Today, Jennifer is rumoured to be in a relationship with Jim Curtis, a hypnotist and wellness expert.
In August, the pair were snapped on a double date at Nobu restaurant in Malibu, California, with Friends co-star Courteney Cox and her boyfriend Johnny McDaid.
Jim and Jen were also pictured on a yacht in Mallorca in July.
Speaking to the November issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK at her gated mansion in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, Jen told how she was worried about the lack of regulation for young people using social media.
And she voiced concerns that “any schmuck can stay anonymous and write whatever the hell they want to write” online.
But the actress revealed that, as she gets older, she feels less need to “correct” a false narrative.
“The news cycle is so fast, it just goes away,” she said.
“Of course, there are times . . . when something has been said that isn’t true and I need to right the wrong. And then I think, do I really? My family knows my truth, my friends know my truth.”
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Jennifer also spoke out about older women being sidelined by society, calling it “an old ideology” which doesn’t “exist any more”.
She added: “The wisdom older women have to contribute is quite extraordinary, and it’s one of the areas where we’ve seen genuine progress in the film world.”
The actress is still close to her Friends co-stars, revealing she recently had dinner with Courteney Cox, who was cast as Monica, and Phoebe actress Lisa Kudrow.
Jennifer, who played Rachel Green in the US sitcom, explained that if she needed anything, “they’d be there for me in two seconds flat”.
She added: “It was like we married each other — they’re my family. Sometimes you love to hate your family, but it’s a lifetime commitment, for sure.”
‘Inner turmoil’
Of losing Chandler Bing actor Matthew Perry to accidental drowning following a ketamine overdose in 2023, Los Angeles-born Jen said it was “heartbreaking” that he had “so many demons”.
But she added that for “someone who had that much inner turmoil, he sure got to laugh a lot, and that was everything to him”.
She also insisted it would be “physically impossible” to resurrect Friends without Matthew.
However, Jen revealed it warms her heart knowing a new generation of fans have embraced the sitcom.
She said: “People will say that they go back and watch episodes to help their mental health.
“That if they’re stressed about the news or the world, they will just sit down and watch a Friends episode. And that’s the ultimate compliment.”
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