For years, everyone had an opinion about Jennifer Aniston and motherhood.
Tabloids claimed she chose her career over having kids, and blamed her for her 2005 divorce from Brad Pitt. But they got it all wrong.
Behind closed doors, the Friends star was fighting a personal battle that would span two decades of her life.
“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,” Jen revealed to Harper’s Bazaar. “That’s not anybody’s business.”
While the world judged her, Jen was going through gruelling IVF treatments and desperately trying to conceive.
She tried everything – from multiple rounds of IVF to drinking Chinese teas, she explored every possible avenue to motherhood.
“I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” she confessed to Allure magazine in 2022. “I was throwing everything at it.”
The constant media scrutiny only made things worse. Every interview became an opportunity for journalists to question her about having children.
“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,” she told Harper’s. “It does affect me. I’m just a human being. We’re all human beings.”
In 2016, Jennifer reached her breaking point. She penned a powerful article for the Huffington Post, addressing the speculation about her personal life.
She thought if sharing her truth could help other women, it was worth breaking her silence.
“I knew a lot of women at the time who were trying to have kids, who were dealing with IVF,” she explained. “So it did feel like it was not only for myself, but for any women who were struggling with the same issue.”
Now 56, Jen has come to terms with the fact that motherhood isn’t in her future. But looking back, she wishes someone had told her to freeze her eggs.
“I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour.’ You just don’t think it,” she reflected. “So here I am today. The ship has sailed.”
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
