Jennifer Aniston Was Going Through IVF While Tabloids Promoted Pregnancy Rumors

For years, pregnancy speculation swirled around Jennifer Aniston. First, during her highly publicized marriage to Brad Pitt in the early 2000s, then with her now ex-husband Justin Theroux in the 2010s. Reports dissected her choice not to have kids and focus on her career, with rumors about her relationships and baby woes selling millions of magazines.

Yet, in a candid new interview, the 53-year-old actress admits those covers were more painful than anyone could’ve imagined. The Morning Show star told Allure she was going through in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment as tabloids ran headlines like “Finally a Baby for Jen” and “Yes, I’m Pregnant.”

“I would say my late 30s, 40s, I’d gone through really hard s—t, and if it wasn’t for going through that, I would’ve never become who I was meant to be,” she began. “That’s why I have such gratitude for all those sh—y things. Otherwise, I would’ve been stuck being this person that was so fearful, so nervous, so unsure of who they were. And now, I don’t f—ing care.”

Aniston went on to say she was “trying to get pregnant” during a period over a decade ago.

“It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” Aniston said, admitting “nobody” knows about her pregnancy journey. “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. 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 admitted she has “no regrets” and actually feels a bit of “relief” these days, since welcoming children of her own is no longer possible.

“There is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.’ I don’t have to think about that anymore,” she said, mentioning her 2016 op-ed in HuffPost in which she slammed the media for its obsession with her being pregnant.

What’s most painful, perhaps, was the “narrative that I was just selfish” or “just cared about my career” and that her marriage crumbled because of her desire not to have kids.

“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. I don’t have anything to hide at this point.”

Aniston and Pitt finalized their divorce in 2005 after five years of marriage. He went on to welcome children with and marry Angelina Jolie, but the pair split in 2016 and are currently embroiled in a custody battle. Aniston began dating actor Theroux in 2011 and they tied the knot in 2015, separating two years later.

When asked if she would ever get married again, Aniston responded with, “Never say never, but I don’t have any interest.”

“I’d love a relationship. Who knows? There are moments I want to just crawl up in a ball and say, ‘I need support.’ It would be wonderful to come home and fall into somebody’s arms and say, ‘That was a tough day.’”

For now, she is enjoying a cozy life at her Los Angeles home with her dogs Clyde and Chesterfield and focused on her role in Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, for which she’s been nominated for multiple awards.

“I feel the best in who I am today, better than I ever did in my 20s or 30s even, or my mid-40s. We needed to stop saying bad s—t to ourselves,” Aniston insisted, telling her future self, “You’re going to be 65 one day and think, I looked f—ing great at 53.”