Jennifer Aniston Gets Real Over Scrutiny She's Faced For Not Having Kids

In a new interview, Jennifer Aniston pushed back on the tabloid scrutiny she’s received over her career, relationships, how she never had kids, and more

By all accounts, Jennifer Aniston has had an incredible life so far. From rocketing to stardom with her role as Rachel on Friends, to being a household name starring in some of the biggest blockbuster films — at 52, it’s clear that Jen has lived a full and exciting life. So why can’t the tabloids stop criticizing her for her relationships — and especially, the fact that she never had kids? In a new interview, she took aim at that extremely unfair scrutiny, and was happy to point out the sexism behind all of it.

“I used to take it all very personally — the pregnancy rumors and the whole ‘Oh, she chose career over kids’ assumption,” Aniston said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s like, ‘You have no clue what’s going with me personally, medically, why I can’t … can I have kids?’ They don’t know anything, and it was really hurtful and just nasty.”

Aniston went on to say that it’s now been a long time since she looked at any of the tabloid news about herself, and now, she’s finally able to laugh about what they’re likely writing.

“Am I still having twins? Am I going to be the miracle mother at 52?” she asked.

Later in the interview, Aniston pointed out something that’s kind of obvious in hindsight: That all the tabloid speculation around her relationships and whether she was going to have kids was always sexist as heck.

“Men can be married as many times as they want to, they can marry (younger) women in their 20s or 30s,” she said, adding that there’s definitely a double standard here. “Women aren’t allowed to do that.”

Today, it really sounds as though Aniston has found peace — with herself, with her career, with her personal relationships (which are none of anyone’s business, BTW), and even with the tabloids — though she did offer her comments on the current media landscape, including social media, that younger stars have to navigate today.

“It’s almost like the media handed over the sword to any Joe Schmo sitting behind a computer screen to be a troll or whatever they call them and bully people in comment sections,” she said. “So it’s just sort of changed hands in a way. And I don’t know why there’s such a cruel streak in society. I often wonder what they get off on.”