Jennifer Aniston Reflected On The 'Love Triangle' Era Of Her Life As She Got Candid About The Horrific Aftermath Of Her Divorce From Brad Pitt
Although the pair — who had been married for almost five years — made it clear that they had parted ways on good terms, tabloids across the globe painted Jen as a villain, speculating that she'd 'refused' to have children with Brad and that she'd chosen to remain committed to her career instead.
Related:
In recent years, Jen has opened up about her fertility struggles, admitting in 2021 that she understandably found the tabloid speculation to be 'really hurtful.' '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. '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.'
And sadly, following her split from Brad, Jen was also pitted against Angelina Jolie, whom Brad met in 2004 and started dating in 2005.
Now, Jen is looking back on the aftermath of her and Brad's divorce. Admitting that it's been a long time since she read her first interview post-Brad-divorce, which was Vanity Fair's 2005 story 'The Unsinkable Jennifer Aniston,' the Friends star said in a new profile with the outlet, 'I haven't looked at that article in forever. I just remember the experience of doing it — which was kind of jarring. It was also such a vulnerable time. But yeah, that was one for the memoirs.'
Related:
The author of the piece noted that Jen said she will, in fact, write a memoir one day, when she has 'more' to share.
'Journalism back then felt more like a form of a sport. There's obviously some PTSD we all have, which is why these scare me,' she said, referring to interviews. 'How are they going to misinterpret my words or take something out of context?'
Related:
Detailing how she got through the so-called 'love triangle' era of her life, Jen said, 'Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on walking, girl.'
'It was such juicy reading for people. If they didn't have their soap operas, they had their tabloids,' she added. 'It's a shame that it had to happen, but it happened. And boy did I take it personally.'
Elsewhere in the interview, Jen hilariously admitted that she and close friend Gwyneth Paltrow — who also dated Brad back in the day — happen to discuss their mutual ex here and there.
Related:
'Oh, of course,' Jen said when asked if she and Gwyneth chat about Brad. 'How can we not? We're girls.'
However, Jen went on to clarify that it's not just Brad that she and Gwyneth discuss. 'We're always swapping advice — 'What are you doing for this? What are you doing for that? Do you have a new doctor for that?'' she shared.
You can find Jen's full Vanity Fair interview right here.
Jennifer Aniston Spoke Candidly For The First Time About Her Private Attempts To Have Kids And It Serves As A Reminder That Women's Bodies Are None Of Our BusinessEllen Durney · Nov. 10, 2022
Jennifer Aniston Opened Up About The 'Nasty' Assumptions That She 'Chose Career Over Kids' 16 Years After Reports That She 'Refused' To Have Children With Brad PittEllen Durney · Dec. 9, 2021
Also in Celebrity:
Also in Celebrity:
Also in Celebrity: Solve the daily Crossword

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Jennifer Aniston calls Brad Pitt split ‘juicy reading' during painful tabloid storm
Jennifer Aniston reflected on the "vulnerable time" in her life after her infamous split from ex-husband Brad Pitt and the divorce coverage she took "personally." "The Morning Show" star recalled her first interview with Vanity Fair in 2005 and how "jarring" it was to speak about the end of her relationship. "I haven't looked at that article in forever," Aniston told the outlet for the September cover story. "I just remember the experience of doing it – which was kind of jarring. It was also such a vulnerable time. But yeah, that was one for the memoirs." Aniston, now 56, revealed the advice she gave herself at the time: "Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on walking, girl." Pitt was first introduced to Aniston in 1994 by their managers. However, their friendship wouldn't turn romantic for a few years — the two went on their first date in 1998. The couple announced their engagement while attending a Sting concert in November 1999. They later married in 2000 during a beachside ceremony in Malibu. In 2004, Aniston announced she was ready to expand her family with Pitt. "It's time. It's time. You know, I think you can work with a baby, I think you can work pregnant, I think you can do all of it. So, I'm just truly looking forward to slowing down," she told The Guardian. That same year, the two split and finalized their divorce in 2005. Pitt quickly moved on with his "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" co-star, Angelina Jolie. By 2006, Pitt had split from Aniston and welcomed his first child with Jolie. Aniston referred to this era of life as "the love triangle." "It was such juicy reading for people," Aniston told Vanity Fair. "If they didn't have their soap operas, they had their tabloids. It's a shame that it had to happen, but it happened. And boy did I take it personally." "It was such juicy reading for people. If they didn't have their soap operas, they had their tabloids. It's a shame that it had to happen, but it happened. And boy did I take it personally." She revealed she "didn't have a strong enough constitution to not get affected by" the attention and speculation that followed after she and Pitt split. "We're human beings, even though some people don't want to believe we are," she explained. "They think, 'You signed up for it, so you take it.' But we really didn't sign up for that." Pitt and Jolie welcomed twins in 2008 and eventually got married at the urging of their children in 2014. Jolie filed for divorce in 2016. Before his marriage to Aniston, Pitt experienced a whirlwind romance with Gwyneth Paltrow. "Ironically, I went to her and Brad's engagement party," Aniston told Vanity Fair. The two women are still friends to this day, and the "Friends" star revealed they definitely do talk about Pitt at times. "Oh, of course," Aniston admitted. "How can we not? We're girls." But, she pointed out that they tend to focus on other topics of gossip. "We're always swapping advice – 'What are you doing for this? What are you doing for that? Do you have a new doctor for that?'"


Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Jennifer Aniston — part of her, at least — has a surprising thought about Matthew Perry's death
Jennifer Aniston just came out with an unexpected, wistful comment about her 'Friends' co-star Matthew Perry's death: Part of her, she said, thinks it might be 'better' for him that he died. 'We did everything we could when we could,' the 'Morning Show' star said in an interview published Monday by Vanity Fair, talking about Perry's friends' attempts to help him when he was struggling with addiction. 'But it almost felt like we'd been mourning Matthew for a long time because his battle with that disease was a really hard one for him to fight.' Indeed, Perry discussed his friends' efforts to help him in his 2022 memoir, 'Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,' which recounted his decades-long struggles with substance abuse as well as his numerous recovery efforts. 'Although he asserts he was never high while filming 'Friends,' he'd often be sick or hungover,' former staff writer Christina Veta wrote in The Times' review of the memoir. 'Once, Perry passed out on the Central Perk couch and [co-star Matt] LeBlanc had to nudge him awake to say his line. Later, Aniston called him out for drinking again, telling him, 'We can smell it.'' Perry told Aniston, 'I know I'm drinking too much, but I don't exactly know what to do about it.' 'In nature, when a penguin is injured, the other penguins group around it and prop it up until it's better,' he wrote in his memoir. 'This is what my costars on Friends did for me. There were times on set when I was extremely hungover, and Jen and Courteney [Cox], being devoted to cardio as a cure-all, had a Lifecycle exercise bike installed backstage. In between rehearsals and takes, I'd head back there and ride that thing like the fires of hell were chasing me — anything to get my brain power back to normal. I was the injured penguin, but I was determined to not let these wonderful people, and this show, down.' Aniston told Vanity Fair in the new interview, 'looking solemn and out toward the ocean' as she spoke about Perry's death, 'As hard as it was for all of us and for the fans, there's a part of me that thinks this is better. I'm glad he's out of that pain.' Perry said in his memoir that amid all his drinking and drug use, he was never suicidal. 'In the back of my mind I always had some semblance of hope. But, if dying was a consequence of getting to take the quantity of drugs I needed, then death was something I was going to have to accept,' he wrote about the period after 'Friends' ended. 'That's how skewed my thinking had become — I was able to hold those two things in my mind at the same time: I don't want to die, but if I have to in order to get sufficient drugs on board, then amen to oblivion.' Almost exactly a year after the memoir came out, on Oct. 28, 2024, at 4 in the afternoon, Perry was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home. The drug ketamine would later emerge as his official cause of death, with drowning a contributing factor.


Gizmodo
2 hours ago
- Gizmodo
The Ending of ‘Weapons' Is Very Personal to Zach Cregger
You can't watch a movie like Weapons and not sense that parts of it come from deep within a person. The portrayals of family, fear, and loss—it's all heartbreaking and scary even before you get to the chills and thrills. Writer-director Zach Cregger fully admits the film was written as a way for him to cope with the loss of a good friend, but his personal connections to the material go even beyond that. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Cregger talked about some of the big reveals in the final act of the film and how they were inspired by his own upbringing. Spoilers to the film, we learn that the sole survivor of the classroom disappearance, Alex (Cary Christopher), is secretly taking care of his parents, who have been possessed by the magic of his aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan). Alex has to cook, clean, and feed his parents, who sit there completely helpless, all as a way to make sure they are keeping up the appearance of something normal. 'This is more of a diary entry about me,' Cregger said about the scenario. 'The last chapter of this movie is straight-up autobiographical. That was my childhood. You live with an alcoholic parent, and there's this inversion of the dynamic. The child can become the [caregiver].' Of course, in Weapons, Alex's parents aren't alcoholics. Cregger decided to make that parallel a little less obvious by making the influence on Alex's parents supernatural. Nevertheless, it's meant to evoke the same feelings. 'This foreign substance comes in and it changes everyone's behavior,' Cregger said. 'The house becomes a scary place. You can go to school and act like everything's cool, and then you come home and you hide from a zombie parent. That felt so real to me.' Knowing Cregger created this scenario as a bit of a way to work through his childhood struggles adds even more catharsis to Alex's eventual triumph over Gladys and the return of his parents. And yet, as per the final line of the movie, not all the children recover from the trauma. Which feels both sad and realistic. Weapons is now in theaters. Read more from Cregger about the making of the film here and here. And head over to Vanity Fair to read more about the ending, including the look and history of Gladys. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.