Jennifer Aniston Reveals Heartbreaking IVF And Fertility Struggles: 'The Ship Has Sailed'
Jennifer Aniston has revealed that she underwent IVF treatment many years ago due ongoing fertility issues and has described the time as being 'really hard'.
The 53-year-old has been subjected to pregnancy speculation and scrutinised in the media for decades in relation to motherhood. And now, for the first time ever, the actor has opened up about her difficult journey with trying to get pregnant in her late 30s and 40s.
In an interview with Allure magazine, Aniston said: 'It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road.'
The Friends alumni, who confronted her fertility issues in private despite ongoing rumours as to her wishes of becoming a mother, said: 'All the years and years and years of speculation... It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it.
'I was throwing everything at it. I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, "Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour." You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.'
Aniston does, however, see the plus side to her hardship, explaining that 'if it wasn’t for going through that, I would’ve never become who I was meant to be'.
The Dumplin' star, who has faced public scrutiny over the breakdown of her first marriage to Brad Pitt, with some presuming that she had prioritised her career over motherhood, hit back at these assumptions.
'I just cared about my career. And God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child,' she said.
Aniston was married to actor Brad Pitt, who she wed in 2000 and later divorced in 2005, before she went on to wed actor Justin Theroux (from 2015-2017)
'And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldn’t give him a kid. It was absolute lies. I don’t have anything to hide at this point.'
Despite her fertility struggles, Aniston explained that they have enabled her to 'have such gratitude for all those sh***y things'. She said: 'Otherwise, I would’ve been stuck being this person that was so fearful, so nervous, so unsure of who they were. And now, I don’t f***ing care.'
As for her future, she's isn't turning down the chance for a new romance, sharing: 'Never say never, but I don’t have any interest. I’d love a relationship. Who knows?
'There are moments I want to just crawl up in a ball and say, "I need support."
'It would be wonderful to come home and fall into somebody’s arms and say, "That was a tough day."'
She went on to say: 'I’ve spent so many years protecting my story about IVF,' before adding: 'I feel like I’m coming out of hibernation. I don’t have anything to hide.'
After Aniston took to Instagram to share various images taken on her shoot with Allure, her ex Theroux showed his support by commenting on the snaps with a fist bump and heart emoji in the comments section.
Last December, Aniston addressed ongoing pregnancy rumours in the media and the aforementioned suggestion that she had chosen a 'career over kids'.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: 'It's like, "You have no clue what’s going [on] with me personally, medically, why I can’t … can I have kids?”', she said, referring to people who speculate about her life. 'They don’t know anything, and it was really hurtful and just nasty.'
She also mimicked those who commented on whether she was expecting to become a mother.
‘Am I still having twins? Am I going to be the miracle mother at 52?' she said rhetorically of rumours that she was. 'I don’t know why there’s such a cruel streak in society.'
When accepting the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award as one of The Hollywood Reporter's 100 most powerful women in entertainment, she fiercely said: ‘Dolly Parton never had kids. But are people giving her sh*t for it? No, no one’s tried to put her in a white picket fence.'
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