Jennifer Aniston is slapping down claims that she never wanted children because she was too much of a “selfish workaholic.”
The 56-year-old Friends star says she was desperately trying everything possible to have a baby while strangers online were criticizing her for not having a family.
She’s admitted in an interview with Allure the “baby-making road” was challenging for her, and that in her late 30s and 40s, “I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it,” she says. “I was throwing everything at it” trying to get pregnant.
The Morning Show alum says she’s now speaking out about her fertility struggles in order to help others in her situation. “I knew a lot of women at the time who were trying to have kids, who were dealing with IVF,” she said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
It didn’t help matters that she was getting judged for not having children by people who had no knowledge of her personal situation. “Any schmuck can stay anonymous and write whatever the hell they want to write” online, she points out.
“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.”
And it wasn’t anyone’s business but hers, she says. “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.”
The relentless criticism did eventually get to her, she admits. “It does affect me. I’m just a human being.”
Jennifer, who married Fight Club hunk Brad Pitt in 2000, calls claims their marriage ended in 2005 because she didn’t want kids an “absolute lie,” per the Allure interview.
She also didn’t have children with Mulholland Drive actor Justin Theroux, who she wed in 2015 but split from three years later. She’s currently rumored to be in a relationship with Jim Curtis, a hypnotist and wellness expert.
In retrospect, the Just Go With It star wishes she’d frozen her eggs, which would have allowed her to extend her fertility window.
“I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor,’” Jen told Allure.
“So here I am today …. But I have zero regrets,” she says, adding, “If it wasn’t for going through that, I would’ve never become who I was meant to be.”