Jennifer Aniston & Kids: What The ‘Friends’ Star Has Said Over The Years About Not Having a Family
Jennifer Aniston has been married twice but never had kids. She has often expressed her disdain for being questioned about that decision. Take a look at all the moments she addressed the topic here.
FrankLin
Jennifer Aniston, 54, has been on a roll with her roles in blockbuster television shows and films as of late. Her Emmy Award-winning show with Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show, will be returning with a third season, and her highly anticipated movie with Adam Sandler, Murder Mystery 2, premiered on Mar. 31, 2023. “It just feels like that kind of period right now is feeling really great about every single thing,” the Friends alum noted to PEOPLE in Mar. 2023 about her recent work. “I’m very grateful.”
While Jen has filled nearly every role under the sun, one title she does not have is that of “Mom.” Jen has faced years of scrutiny and questioning about her decision to not have children, and she has naturally handled it with grace. HollywoodLife has gathered all the moments the Golden Globe Award-winning actress has spoken out against the rampant sexism still prevalent in our culture and how her child-free life shouldn’t be a notable characteristic.
Jennifer Aniston Isn’t Putting Pressure On Herself To Find The One
Jennifer Aniston attends the 75th Anniversary celebration of NBC at Rockefeller Plaza, NY, 2002 (Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock).For right now, the Just Go With It actress is single and happy to be — even though her friends have offered to set her up before. “Not right now,” she told radio host Howard Stern in Oct. 2019 after he offered to find a great guy for her. “But listen, I just don’t like being set up. I don’t like it. Hate it.”
Jen simply doesn’t feel the need to put that kind of pressure on herself, and the same goes for dating apps. “Absolutely no,” she told PEOPLE in June 2021 after she was asked if she would be interested in online dating. “I’m going to just stick to the normal ways of dating. Having someone ask you out. That’s the way I would prefer it.”
“I’m interested in finding a fantastic partner and just living an enjoyable life and having fun with one another,” she continued. “That’s all we should hope for. It doesn’t have to be etched in stone in legal documents.”
Jen was famously married to Brad Pitt between 2000 and 2005. She went on to tie the knot with Justin Theroux in 2015, but they split just two years later.
Jen Aniston Said She Wanted Kids In 2005
Following her divorce from the Ad Astra star, Jen denied that they separated due to her lack of desire to start a family. “A man divorcing would never be accused of choosing career over children. That really pisses me off,” she vented to Vanity Fair in 2005 before revealing that she does in fact plan to have kids. “I’ve never in my life said I didn’t want to have children. I did and I do and I will!”
She went on to say that women who have successful careers and children inspire her. “Why would I want to limit myself? I’ve always wanted to have children, and I would never give up that experience for a career,” she explained. “I want to have it all.”
On the topic of kids, Jennifer told AP, via Yahoo News in Mar. 2023, that kids today find her former hit show, Friends, offensive. “There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive,” she explained. “There were things that were never intentional and others… well, we should have thought it through — but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now.”
Jen Tries To Ignore The ‘Silliness’
Jennifer Aniston arrives at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards in 2020 (Shutterstock).Unfortunately, having your love life publicly examined and speculated about is part of the territory of being a celebrity. Jen knows this first hand, as she has been subject to relationship and even pregnancy rumors for years. “Sometimes you can’t help family members or people sending stuff over going, ‘What is this? You’re having a baby? Are you getting married?’” she recalled in her 2021 chat with PEOPLE. “It’s like, ‘Oh, good gosh, when and how many years will it take for you to ignore that silliness?’” she quipped.
In 2014, the California native said she doesn’t see a timeline for herself when it comes to starting a family. “I don’t have this checklist of things that have to be done and if I’ve not checked them, then I’ve failed some part of my feminism or my being a woman or my worth or value as a woman because I haven’t birthed a child,” she told Carson Daly on TODAY.
Jen Is Over The Pressure To Have Kids
Jennifer Aniston at the 4th Annual Patron of the Artists Awards, 2019 (Matt Baron/Shutterstock).“[I don’t] like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women — that you’ve failed yourself as a female because you haven’t procreated. I don’t think it’s fair,” Jen said in a Dec. 2014 interview with Allure. “You may not have a child come out of your vagina, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t mothering — dogs, friends, friends’ children.” She added, “This continually is said about me: that I was so career-driven and focused on myself; that I don’t want to be a mother, and how selfish that is.”
The Cake actress also confirmed in 2014 that having kids wasn’t at the top of her and Justin Theroux’s priority list when they were together. “I just find it to be energy that is unnecessary and not really fair for those who may or may not [have children],” she told PEOPLE. “Who knows what the reason is, why people aren’t having kids. There’s a lot of reasons that could be, and maybe it’s something that no one wants to discuss.”
More recently, in Dec. 2022, Jen told Allure that she actually once tried to conceive via IVF. “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,” she explained. “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 starlet clarified that despite that, she still has no regrets. “I have zero regrets. I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.’ I don’t have to think about that anymore,” she concluded.
Jen Is Happy With Her Life Decisions
Jennifer Aniston pictured in 1998 (John Barrett/Shutterstock).Jen admitted in a 2021 interview that she used to get offended by speculation about why she didn’t have kids. “I used to take it all very personally — the pregnancy rumors and the whole ‘Oh, she chose career over kids’ assumption,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in Dec. 2021. “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 LolaVie founder also touched on the double standard she has experienced in terms of getting asked about having kids in comparison to other entertainers.“It’s the same with Dolly Parton; Dolly Parton never had kids,” she said. “But are people giving her s*** for it? No, no one’s tried to put her in a white picket fence.”
Moreover, the Dumplin actress penned an open letter for The Huffington Post in 2016 that clearly and beautifully made a statement about the sexist double standards placed on women regarding having families and raising children. “We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child … that decision is ours and ours alone,” she wrote. “We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.”
Jen Aniston Has A Sweet Relationship With Courteney Cox’s Daughter
Coco Arquette and Jennifer Aniston leaned on each other for support as they watched Courteney Cox accept a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Feb. 2023 (Photo: John Salangsang/Shutterstock)While the We’re the Millers star doesn’t have any biological kids, she does have a goddaughter: Courteney Cox and David Arquette‘s daughter, Coco Arquette. In Feb. 2023, Jen was seen getting emotional while sitting next to Coco as they watched Courteney accept her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At one point, she even leaned into her for some comfort.
Click to Subscribe to Get Our Free HollywoodLife Daily Newsletter to get the hottest celeb news.
