Stop the press. It’s The One Where Jennifer Aniston reveals (again) that she did want to be a mom all along.
Yes, The Morning Show actress, whose eggs have faced more scrutiny than Faberge’s finest over the years, has been getting candid over her childlessness in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
Contrary to popular opinion, the star who married Brad Pitt in 2005 and Justin Theroux in 2015 wasn’t a career bitch prioritizing tight abs and a slew of forgettable rom coms over starting a family. In case any doubt remains, she was in fact as desperate for dummies and diapers as the average woman, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
‘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,’ said the star on the decades-long public judgment.
‘That’s not anybody’s business. 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 added: ‘The older I get, the less I care about correcting a narrative, because it will happen eventually.’
Aniston has announced that she always wanted children – but was unable to have them
Aniston’s eggs have faced more scrutiny than Faberge’s finest over the years
Contrary to popular opinion, the star who married Brad Pitt (pictured) in 2005 and Justin Theroux in 2015 wasn’t a career bitch prioritizing tight abs and a slew of forgettable rom coms over starting a family
Really Jen? I must stop you there. In fact, the 57-year-old seems intent on setting the record straight. And it’s not the first time. In a 2022 interview with Allure magazine, she disclosed she had IVF treatment which had been unsuccessful and expressed regret over not freezing her eggs sooner.
All of which is her prerogative. But, by fog-horning the message, ‘childlessness IS NOT MY CHOICE’ (subtext: I’m really not unnatural/weird/selfish) isn’t she simply fueling the narrative that has judged her so harshly in the first place?
I’m talking about the one that can only really stomach non-motherhood if it’s down to a physiological reason and has zero truck with the host of other factors that can come into play such as timing, other dependents, finances or just generally not wanting them.
The one in which the public felt oddly cheated when America’s sweetheart didn’t have kids with Brad and believed she got her just deserts when he moved on with Angelina Jolie and their six children (three biological and three adopted) who he doesn’t see any more anyway.
And the one that tried to reduce an Emmy and Golden globe winner with a $320 million fortune to a poor, lonely pity party as the noise around her lack of motherhood grew louder with every passing year.
That narrative is underpinned by skewed societal judgements and expectations which Aniston was better placed than most to challenge.
Remember when JD Vance’s comments calling Democrats a ‘bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives’ made in a 2021 interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson resurfaced? Widely and rightly derided, yes, and naturally Jen had something to say.
‘I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States,’ clapped back the Friends alumna on Instagram.
‘All I can say is… Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day.’
By fog-horning the message: childlessness IS NOT MY CHOICE (subtext: I’m really not unnatural/weird/selfish) isn’t Aniston simply fueling the narrative that has judged her so harshly in the first place?
Contrary to popular opinion, the star who married Justin Theroux in 2015 wasn’t a career bitch prioritizing rom coms over starting a family
Pitt, meanwhile, moved on with Angelina Jolie and their six children – who he doesn’t see any more anyway
Wise words but wouldn’t the impact have hit harder had she not felt so compelled to explain and justify her own situation and circumstances?
Perhaps her latest words are all the more disappointing because, up until recent years, she had stayed dignified as the keyboard warriors sniped and slapped down every move as evidence of what was supposedly missing in her life.
In their bitter eyes, the star’s much vaunted workout and wellness focus smacked of too much time on her hands and child-free self-indulgence.
Not to mention those ageless abs – easy to achieve when you’ve not been through childbirth, was the common retort.
But surely Jen should be above blabbing personal medical details of the kind that used to stay between a woman and her gynecologist. Leave that for the lesser celebs desperately peddling their sob stories for profile.
Forget her iconic turn as Rachel in Friends, one of Jen’s most interesting roles has been as a rare poster girl for another kind of ‘pro-choice’. One that could be A list and aspirational and ‘have it all’ in a different way without conforming to womanhood’s biggest societal tick box.
The lack of family never harmed her career, brand or bankability. But in her sixth decade, when she’s still at the top of her game, her insecurities and thirst for approval have seen her pander to a dated trope.
In a world of peak woke, childless women remain one of the last punchbags.
But there’s no need for any excuses. When it comes to regressive, sexist judgment Jen should have waved it by without comment and let her success do the talking.
