They may look like the picture-perfect couple, but Jennifer Aniston and boyfriend Jim Curtis’ relationship takes work – just like the rest of us.
Speaking on the Ced with Intention podcast recently, the 50-year-old wellness coach, author and hypnotherapist got candid about the hurdles they have faced and how to overcome them.
And it all comes down to knowing how to “repair” your relationship, he says.
“The only reason we’re here on this earth is for interpersonal relationships. That’s all the reason,” he explained. “Repair is part of it all. We’re living with it.”
Get ahead of potential issues
Referencing his own relationship with the actress, 57 – whom he didn’t name – Jim revealed that “flare-ups” can occur. Ultimately, it’s all about how you deal with conflict that will make or break you.
“I spend a lot of time with my girlfriend. We spend a lot of time in the house together,” he said. “Sometimes, we can have little things that flare up. We have the opportunity to be silent and be angry and go leave the house or, like, think about it and meditate and try to change it.
“Or we can say, ‘Hey, this is what happened, I’m sorry,’ and do the repair,’ and then go and work on making sure it happens less or doesn’t happen again. Because once you make a repair and it just happens five more times, no-one trusts it.”
Jim noted that relationships are 50/50, with an equal amount of work required on each person’s part. Anything less and you’re setting yourself up for failure.
“There has to be some agreement, ‘We’re in this relationship, you can’t be emotionally closed off while I’m doing all the work,’” he said.
“We both have to work on ourselves. I can’t fix you, you can’t fix me. But we have to at least be in agreement, ‘This is gonna happen when we have this discussion.’”
It’s crutial to get in sync
In terms of his own relationship, Jim – who was first linked to the Friends star in July 2025 – revealed the pair have pre-emptive discussions “before anything bad happens”.
“We’ve had discussions where, before anything bad happens in this situation, ‘Do you need time? Do you need 10 minutes to yourself to think about it?’” he revealed.
“‘Do you want to get into it immediately? Is it OK if we sleep [on it] overnight, or are you the type of person if you go to bed angry it’s painful for you?’”
Set the ground rules
In romantic relationships especially, Jim says you need to “pre-game the rules” because we’re “all so screwed up”.
“Unless we start to be really consciously proactive about that, then we’re just going to be having all of our inner stuff come up all over the place and not know how to experience it together,” he says.
Providing some rare insight into his relationship, Jim revealed on the US Today show last month that he and Jen were “introduced by friends”. And they took their time getting to know each other.
“We found out that we had mutual friends and we started to just chat,” he said. “It took a long time, we chatted for a long time, and we became close.”
