Jennifer Aniston Slams Past Reports She Chose Work Over Starting a Family

Jennifer Aniston is opening up in Bazaar U.K.’s November issue about her life in the spotlight and past reports she chose work over having a family.

Aniston previously shared her IVF journey with Allure in 2022, and wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post in 2016 about how she was “fed up” over the pregnancy speculation and scrutiny over women’s bodies.

Now, she tells Bazaar U.K. of the gossip and headlines about her over the years, “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. That’s not anybody’s business.”

The star of “The Morning Show” continued, “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, a workaholic. It does affect me — I’m just a human being. We’re all human beings. That’s why I thought, ‘What the hell?’”

She said of her op-ed piece for the Huffington Post that she did it “because I knew a lot of women at the time who were trying to have kids, who were dealing with IVF. So, it did feel like it was not only for myself, but for any women who were struggling with the same issue.”

These days she’s not as concerned about what’s being said about her.

“The older I get, the less I care about correcting a narrative, because it will happen eventually,” she said. “The news cycle is so fast, it just goes away. Of course, there are times when I feel that sense of justice — when something has been said that isn’t true and I need to right the wrong. And then I think, do I really? My family knows my truth, my friends know my truth.”

She also reflected on creating forever friendships with her “Friends” castmates, which included Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry, who died in 2023.

“I know that if I needed anything, I’d go direct to the chain we have together and they’d be there for me in two seconds flat,” she said. “It was like we married each other — they’re my family. Sometimes you love to hate your family, but it’s a lifetime commitment, for sure.”

Reflecting on Perry, she added, “It’s heartbreaking that he had so many demons. But boy, for someone who had that much inner turmoil, he sure got to laugh a lot, and that was everything to him.”

As for the possibility of a remake or sequel without Perry, she said, "It would be literally, physically impossible."

On a separate note, Jen hinted she might want to try a role on Broadway someday. 

She shared, “I haven’t done theatre yet because it terrifies me, but it’s the one thing I haven’t tried besides make an album, which I doubt I’ll do! But I grew up in New York and loved going to the theatre, so I think it’d be fun.”