This Is Why Jennifer Aniston Doesn't Have Any Children

Jennifer Aniston has been hounded by pregnancy rumors for decades. As invested as fans are in Aniston's life, it really isn't anyone's business. Nevertheless, it's a topic that the Friends alum has addressed throughout the years. In her 2006 post-Brad Pitt breakup interview with Vanity Fair, Aniston discussed the blatant sexism in the headlines about her personal life. She remarked, "A man divorcing would never be accused of choosing career over children. That really pissed me off."

She emphasized, "I've never in my life said I didn't want to have children. I did and I do and I will! The women that inspire me are the ones who have careers and children; 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. I want to have it all." Two years later, she told Vogue, "I've said it so many times: I'm going to have children. I just know it."

A decade later, Aniston was still dealing with the same narrative. In 2018, she told Instyle, "The misconceptions are 'Jen can't keep a man,' and 'Jen refuses to have a baby because she's selfish and committed to her career.'" Still, there's nothing wrong with not having kids. She told the magazine, "There is a pressure on women to be mothers, and if they are not, then they're deemed damaged goods. Maybe my purpose on this planet isn't to procreate. Maybe I have other things I'm supposed to do."

In 2016, Jennifer Aniston wrote an essay published by the Huffington Post with the title, "For the Record". She shared, "For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up. I'm fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of 'journalism,' the 'First Amendment' and 'celebrity news.'" She declared, "The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing. The way I am portrayed by the media is simply a reflection of how we see and portray women in general, measured against some warped standard of beauty."

At the time, she was married to Justin Theroux, and the subject of pregnancy rumors, again. The Morning Show star wrote, "This past month in particular has illuminated for me how much we define a woman's value based on her marital and maternal status. The sheer amount of resources being spent right now by press trying to simply uncover whether or not I am pregnant (for the bajillionth time... but who's counting) points to the perpetuation of this notion that women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful, or unhappy if they're not married with children." She wrote that women are "complete with or without a mate" and "with or without a child." 

Fans feel like they know Aniston and want her to be happy, but that should not include false pregnancy headlines and endless questions about motherhood. 

In the January 2019 issue of Elle, Jennifer Aniston said, "We live in a society that messages women: By this age, you should be married; by this age, you should have children." She added, "That's a fairy tale. That's the mold we're slowly trying to break out of." The Golden Globe winner is all about breaking that mold. She wondered, "Why do we want a happy ending? How about just a happy existence? A happy process? We're all in process constantly." The point is that life isn't about getting to some destination.

She elaborated, "What quantifies happiness in someone's life isn't the ideal that was created in the '50s. It's not like you hear that narrative about any men." She also pointed out that a lot of the criticism she receives is, ironically, from other women. She hypothesized, "Maybe those are women who haven't figured out that they have the power, that they have the ability to achieve a sense of inner happiness."

In that same interview, she acknowledged that the thought of parenthood can be "quite honestly, kind of frightening." She continued, "Some people are just built to be wives and have babies. I don't know how naturally that comes to me." And, it's perfectly OK that she's still figuring that out.

During her 2018 InStyle interview, Jennifer Aniston described her dogs as her "kids." She said that they make her happy. Aniston also dished on the human children who are in her life. While discussing her pool with Elle in 2019, Aniston declared, "This is where, every Sunday, we do 'Sunday Fundays,' as we call it, where [my friends'] kids come and we huddle around down there and they jump around in the pool." 

In February 2020, Sandra Bullock talked to Aniston about what she envisions in her future for Interview Magazine. Bullock asked, "What is it that you haven't done yet that you are looking forward to doing?" Aniston revealed, "It's not so much what I see myself doing, but it's more like a little screenshot in my brain, where I hear the ocean, I see the ocean, I hear laughter, I see kids running, I hear ice in a glass, I smell food being cooked. That's the joyous snapshot in my head." 

And, perhaps, she will have kids of her own at those Sunday Funday gatherings. Or maybe she won't, but if she does decide to become a mother, it won't be some headline in the media making the announcement — at least, not if she has anything to say about it. In her Huffington Post essay, Aniston promised, "I will be the first to let you know."

Jennifer Aniston gets asked about having kids almost as much as she gets asked about her time on "Friends." The constant questions and pressure have taken a toll on the actor and her life. In 2021, she told The Hollywood Reporter, "I used to take it all very personally — the pregnancy rumors and the whole 'Oh, she chose career over kids' assumption. It's like, 'You have no clue what's going with me personally, medically, why I can't ... can I have kids?" At the time, Aniston hinted that she might not have been able to have children; however, it wasn't until a year later that she opened up about her struggle with trying to conceive.

In November 2022, "The Morning Show" actor spoke with Allure about how she had tried to get pregnant via IVF when no one knew. Aniston shared, "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." The actor had admitted that she never considered freezing her eggs when she was younger. She shared, "You just don't think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed." The "Friends" actor has accepted that she will probably never have kids but expressed that she has "no regrets" and doesn't feel like she has to stress about it anymore.