The actress spoke for the first time about her in vitro fertilization process and her fertility problems
In a new candid interview with Allure magazine, the actress opened up about the painful pregnancy rumors that plagued her for years, revealing that behind her public scrutiny was a secret fight against infertility.
"She was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the road of making babies," Aniston told the publication. "All the years and years and years of speculation... It was really difficult," she noted. "I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, whatever. I was throwing everything at it. I would have given anything if someone had said to me, 'Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.' You just don't think about it."
Of course, she didn't help her divorce from Brad Pitt in 2005 after 5 years of marriage and rumors that she preferred her career over her children. "They were absolute lies," Aniston said of the "stories that I was just selfish and only cared about my career. And the reason why my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldn't give him a child."
“The dehumanization and scrutiny we subject women to is absurd and disturbing,” she added. "The way the media portrays me is simply a reflection of how we see and portray women in general, compared to a distorted standard of beauty."
But now, at 53, she said she "doesn't regret" how things worked out. "Here I am today. The ship has sailed," she said, adding, "I actually feel a bit of relief now that there's no more 'Can I?' I don't have to think about it anymore."
"I would say that when I was in my 30s and 40s, I went through some very difficult things, and if it wasn't for going through that, I never would have become who I was meant to be," Aniston said. "That's why I have so much gratitude for all that sh*t. Otherwise, I would have been stuck being this person so fearful, so nervous, so unsure of who they were. And now, I don't know."
This isn't the first time Aniston has spoken about the impact gossip about her personal life has had on her.
In 2016, the Friends actress wrote a scathing essay for the Huffington Post addressing false pregnancy reports at the time, saying, "For the record, I'm not pregnant. I'm just fed up."
"This is where I come out on this topic: we are complete with or without a partner, with or without children. We can decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone."
She wrote. "Let's make that decision for ourselves and for the young women of this world who look up to us as examples. Let's make that decision consciously, outside of the noise of the tabloids. We don't need to be married or mothers to be whole."
