Aniston's shock ‘love triangle' Pitt divorce admission
The former Friends golden girl has spoken to Vanity Fair about life after Brad, trading advice with former Pitt partner Gwenyth Paltrow, and her dismay over tabloid media stories that keep her behind closed doors in the Los Angeles hills.
In a revealing interview with the same magazine soon after their split, Aniston shocked the world and delivered a racy exposé titled The Unsinkable Jennifer Aniston, as an exclamation mark to end the five-year marriage.
Wearing only a men's button-down shirt, with underwear and thigh-high boots, the post-Pitt interview was as memorable for its imagery as its content and signalled a release for Aniston, albeit at a cost.
'I haven't looked at that article in forever,' Aniston says.
'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.
'Journalism back then felt more like a form of a sport.
'There's obviously some PTSD we all have, which is why these (interviews) scare me.
'How are they going to misinterpret my words or take something out of context? And one line nowadays…,' she adds. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Credit: AAP.
They say time heals all wounds, but the bounce back from a time Aniston describes as her 'love triangle' period, as Brad Pitt's blossoming relationship with Angelina Jolie burst into the spotlight, has been a slow burn.
Her mantra to ward off the suffocating gaze of paparazzi and online gossip columnists: 'Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on walking, girl', she tells Vanity Fair.
'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.'
'I didn't have a strong enough constitution to not get affected by it. We're human beings, even though some people don't want to believe we are,' she said.
Aniston's relationship with Pitt has rekindled over time and fans have been heartened to see the pair chat together on podcasts and meet happily at awards ceremonies.
'I will love (Brad) for the rest of my life. He's a fantastic man. I don't regret any of it, and I'm not going to beat myself up about it,' she says.
Friendships with other Hollywood royalty have blossomed during the years, and her relationship with Paltrow holds a special bond.
When asked if the pair discuss their respective time spent with Pitt, the answer comes with ease.
'Oh, of course,' Aniston says.
'How can we not? We're girls.
'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?''
Another close friend Sandra Bollock says Aniston's ability to bounce back from adversity over the years has turned her into a wonderful friend.
'I think her superpower is that she could very easily be hard, but she's incredibly open,' Bullock says.
'People want to know about her and understand where she is in life and want her to be happy.'
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