Jennifer Aniston Claps Back At ‘Assumption’ She Chose Her ‘Career Over Kids’

Jennifer Aniston called the assumption that she prioritized her career over children ‘really hurtful and just nasty’ in a candid new interview.

Jennifer Aniston is no longer bothered by chatter about her personal life. In a new profile for The Hollywood Reporter published on Dec. 8, the actress, 52, discussed tuning out tabloids and her voyage to “own who I am, where I am and just how long I’ve fucking been here.” During the unfiltered conversation, the Friends alum addressed the assumption that she “chose career over kids,” calling it “hurtful” and “nasty.”

“People certainly project onto you and all that, but my job is to go, ‘Listen, I’ll show you what I’m capable of, and you decide if you want to subscribe,'” she said of the public interest in her personal life. “So, you disappear as much as you can, you have fun, you take on these weird roles, you don’t give a shit, you enjoy yourself, you remember that you have a gorgeous group of friends and your life is blessed and you do the best that you can.”

That’s not to say she’s always possessed this blasé philosophy. “I used to take it all very personally — the pregnancy rumors and the whole ‘Oh, she chose career over kids’ assumption,” Jennifer said. “It’s like, ‘You have no clue what’s going with me personally, medically, why I can’t … can I have kids?’ They don’t know anything, and it was really hurtful and just nasty.” The actress bemoaned the double standard of men escaping those judgments.

“Men can be married as many times as they want to, they can marry [younger] women in their 20s or 30s,” Jennifer said. “Women aren’t allowed to do that.” The Emmy winner was previously married to Justin Theroux and Brad Pitt, and has no children, prompting tabloid headlines aplenty throughout the course of her career. (“Am I still having twins?” she quipped to THR.)

Regardless of these statuses, Jennifer is “just getting started.” The actress — who followed in her actor parents John Aniston and Nancy Dow’s footsteps and forayed into Hollywood in the late 1980s  — said of her career:  “I’m just getting started. I’ve only recently started to be like, ‘Oh, I got this.’ I think I needed to get over those hurdles of self-doubt and own who I am and where I am and just how long I’ve fucking been here.”