For nearly two decades, there’s been a subgenre of celebrity journalism devoted to Jennifer Aniston’s womb — speculating and prognosticating on whether she was or would soon be, with child.
The ageless “Friends” beauty, 53, never had children, but has now revealed it wasn’t for lack of trying, admitting to Allure Magazine that she spent years undergoing IVF.
“I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” Aniston told the beauty mag.
The actress, who posed for a series of revealing photos, did not specify which partner she tried to start a family with, but she has been previously married to Brad Pitt through 2005. She then wed actor Justin Theroux before the couple divorced in 2018.
“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 said. “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.”
And so has the secret of her infertility, which the star kept 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,” Aniston told the magazine. “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 said the rampant speculation and tabloid headlines about her love life compounded the pain that stemmed from her ultimately not being able to have children. She also disputed the “narrative” that she was selfish and career-obsessed — and that that led to the demise of her relationship with Pitt.
“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.”
The actress said the frustration led her to pen an op-ed for the Huffington Post in 2016 that took the media to task for their bottomless obsession with her becoming pregnant.
“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.
Ultimately, Aniston said her fifth decade has been her best yet.
“I have zero regrets,” she said, adding, “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.”