Jennifer Aniston is clearing the air once and for all about why she never became a mother. During a recent candid interview with Harper's Bazaar U.K., the 56-year-old "Friends" icon opened up about her decision to pen an op-ed for The Huffington Post back in 2016, aiming to dispel the persistent rumors swirling around her choice to remain childless.
"They had no clue about my personal journey or the struggles I'd endured over two decades, trying to start a family," she revealed, her voice tinged with a mix of frustration and vulnerability. "I don't go around broadcasting my medical tribulations—that's my private business. But there comes a moment when you can't just turn a deaf ear to it anymore. The constant chatter about how I won't have a baby, won't start a family, because I'm selfish or a workaholic, it does get to me. I'm human, after all. We all are."
At a certain juncture, she recalled, a feeling of exasperation washed over her. "What the heck?" she thought, prompting her to write the op-ed. "I knew so many women at the time who were wrestling with the same dream of having kids," she explained, "and were navigating the arduous path of IVF. My decision to speak out wasn't just for me—it was for every woman grappling with the same heartache."
The rumors that the actress had prioritized her career over starting a family began to swirl after her high-profile divorce from actor Brad Pitt in 2005. Many speculated that Pitt had left her because she wasn't interested in having children. In truth, Aniston had been quietly undergoing IVF treatments, which, unfortunately, did not yield the desired result.
In her 2016 op-ed, Aniston took a swipe at the media for reducing "a woman's worth to her marital and maternal status." She recounted how she and her then-husband, Justin Theroux, were "hounded by hordes of aggressive photographers camped outside our home," all vying for a snapshot of her and to determine "whether or not I was pregnant (for the umpteenth time... but who's keeping track?)."
"I've grown weary of being part of this narrative," she penned. "Sure, I might become a mother one day, and if I do, I'll be the first to shout it from the rooftops. But I'm not chasing motherhood because I feel incomplete, as our celebrity-obsessed culture would have us believe. I resent being made to feel 'less than' because my body is changing or I indulged in a burger and was caught at a bad angle, only to be labeled as either 'pregnant' or 'fat.'"
The actress delved deeper into her fertility journey in a November 2022 interview with Allure, admitting, "The road to having a baby was a tough one for me." She elaborated that the "years upon years of speculation" were taxing, and now that she's moved past that chapter in her life, she feels "a twinge of relief because there's no more 'Could I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.'"
"I tried IVF, sipped on Chinese teas—you name it, I did it. I threw everything I had at it. I would've given anything if someone had just told me, 'Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.' You just don't think about it. So, here I am now. The boat has sailed," she confessed.
While she felt it was crucial to voice her truth at the time, Aniston now reflects, "The older I get, the less I care about setting the record straight. Eventually, the truth has a way of surfacing on its own."
"The news cycle moves so fast, it just fades away. Of course, there are moments when I feel that urge for justice—when something untrue has been said, and I need to correct it," she told Harper's Bazaar U.K. "But then I pause and think, do I really need to? My family knows my story, my friends know who I am."
