Jennifer Aniston is opening about the scrutiny she faced over the years from the public for not becoming a mother.
In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar published Wednesday, the actor, 56, got candid about her struggles with fertility and in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, which she says she kept out of the spotlight for decades.
“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,” Aniston said of the media. “That’s not anybody’s business.”
She continued, “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.”
The “Friends” alum admitted “it does affect” her, telling the outlet, “I’m just a human being. We’re all human beings. That’s why I thought, ‘What the hell?’”
Aniston went on to explain that the hearsay pushed her to write her 2016 op-ed for the Huffington Post (now called HuffPost), in which she called out the media’s “dehumanizing view of females.”
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“So it did feel like it was not only for myself, but for any women who were struggling with the same issue,” Aniston said of other women who were battling (IVF) issues and trying to start a family.
Speaking with Allure in 2022, Aniston shut down the rumors that her previous marriages didn’t pan out because she didn’t want to have a child. She called the gossip “absolute lies” and slammed the narrative that she was “just selfish.”
“I just cared about my career. And God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child,” she said. “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.”
Aniston was previously married to Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005 and to Justin Theroux from 2015 to 2018.
She also told Allure she has “zero regrets” about never conceiving at this stage in her life.
“I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe,’ she said. “I don’t have to think about that anymore.”
