Jennifer Aniston is speaking about her fertility struggles and IVF attempts for the first time.
The “Friends” alum described the “challenging road” in her Allure December 2022 cover story published Wednesday, saying she experienced “hard s–t” while trying to conceive.
“If it wasn’t for going through that, I would’ve never become who I was meant to be. That’s why I have such gratitude for all those s–tty things,” she said, clarifying that she was “trying to get pregnant” several years ago.
During “all the years of [media] speculation,” Aniston, 53, was “going through IVF [and] drinking Chinese teas.”
She recalled, “I was throwing everything at it. I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.”
The “Morning Show” star has “zero regrets” and now “actually feel[s] a little relief.”
She explained, “There is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.’ I don’t have to think about that anymore.”
Sharing her story feels “like coming out of hibernation,” Aniston went on to tell the magazine.
“I’ve spent so many years protecting my story about IVF,” she said. “I’m so protective of these parts because I feel like there’s so little that I get to keep to myself. … I don’t have anything to hide.”
The actress, who was married to Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005 and Justin Theroux from 2015 to 2017, has found her family plans at the brunt of much speculation over the years.
Aniston clapped back at the “narrative” that she never wanted children and was a “selfish” partner whose husband left her because she “wouldn’t give him a kid.”
She said, “God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child. … It was absolute lies.”
While the Emmy winner has never publicly vocalized her fertility struggles, she did write a Huffington Post op-ed in July 2016 to clarify that “women do a lot of incredible things other than procreate.”
The “Marley & Me” star wrote, “For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up.
“The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing,” she added at the time. “The way I am portrayed by the media is simply a reflection of how we see and portray women in general, measured against some warped standard of beauty.”
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