Trigger warning: This article discusses fertility struggles. If you find this topic distressing, please contact Pregnancy, Birth and Baby on 1800 882 436, or visit their website.
Jennifer Aniston has candidly revealed how she has been affected by the public’s obsession with her fertility.
The Friends star spoke with Harper’s Bazaar about why she chose to publicly reveal her fertility struggles in an op-ed for the Huffington Post.
Titled For the Record and published in 2016, she initially revealed that she was going through fertility struggles, and slammed ongoing speculation about whether she was going to become a mother.
At the time, she was married to Justin Theroux.
“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,” she told Harper’s Bazaar for its November issue, reflecting on her decision to set the record straight.
“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?’”
Away from the public eye, Jennifer was going through IVF, which was sadly unsuccessful.
While she initially decided to stay silent, she told the publication she spoke up “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,” she continued.
In her 2016 essay, she wrote that she was “fed up” with the narratives surrounding her fertility.
Fast forward to nine years later, The Morning Show star, who is also set to act in and executive produce the series I’m Glad My Mom Died, said she worries that social media has replaced the “circle of shame”.
Despite this, Jennifer said she has stopped worrying about how her words will be interpreted.
“My family knows my truth, my friends know my truth,” she added.
