Jennifer Aniston opens up about 20-year struggle to have kids: ‘They didn’t know my story’
Not everything was picture perfect.
Jennifer Aniston is getting candid on her years-long fertility journey and how wrong the narrative really was.
The actress, 56, was married to Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005, before rumors started swirling during their divorce that they split because Aniston prioritized her career over having a baby.
In reality, the “Morning Show” star had privately been undergoing in vitro fertilization.
“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,” she said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar published Thursday. “That’s not anybody’s business.”
The “Picture Perfect” star added, “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. We’re all human beings. That’s why I thought, ‘What the hell?’ ”
In 2016, Aniston wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post, addressing the speculation and harsh behavior of the media surrounding her fertility.
The “Murder Mystery” vet spoke out for others in similar situations, “because I knew a lot of women at the time who were trying to have kids, who were dealing with IVF. So it did feel like it was not only for myself, but for any women who were struggling with the same issue.”
Aniston and Pitt, 61, split after five years of marriage, shortly after he met Angelina Jolie on the set of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”
They became romantically involved in 2005, before tying the knot in 2014 and officially divorcing in 2019. Pitt and Jolie, 50, are parents to Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne.
Aniston went on to marry Justin Theroux before they divorced in 2018.
In 2022, undergoing IVF.
“I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” the actress told the outlet.
“All the years and years and years of speculation … It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it,” she admitted. “I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.”
Aniston explained why she kept her journey under wraps for years.
“I’ve spent so many years protecting my story about IVF. I’m so protective of these parts because I feel like there’s so little that I get to keep to myself,” she said. “The [world] creates narratives that aren’t true, so I might as well tell the truth. I feel like I’m coming out of hibernation. I don’t have anything to hide.”
Aniston added that the rampant speculation and tabloid headlines spewed false narratives.
“God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child,” she mused. “And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldn’t give him a kid. It was absolute lies.”
“I was like, ‘I’ve just got to write this because it’s so maddening and I’m not superhuman to the point where I can’t let it penetrate and hurt,’ ” she said.
At the time, Aniston noted that her current decade of life has been her best.
“I have zero regrets,” she gushed, sharing, “I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.’ I don’t have to think about that anymore.”