Jennifer Aniston has spoken about attempting to conceive through IVF but has stated that “the ship has sailed.”
The actress, well known for her role as Rachel Green on Friends, claimed she had a terrible period in her late 30s and early 40s while under public scrutiny.
“I was trying to get pregnant,” she said.
She said that she wished someone had told her to freeze her eggs.
“It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” she added.
“All the years and years of speculation… It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it.”
But she told the magazine that she had “zero regrets.”
She added: “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,” she said. “The ship has sailed.”
After two years of marriage, Aniston and actor Justin Theroux announced their divorce in 2018. She was formerly married to actor Brad Pitt.
She said that the media is unfair to women in the profession who do not have children, and that she created a “narrative that I was just selfish” and “just cared about my work.”
“And God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child,” she said.
Addressing her marriage to Brad Pitt, she said: “And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldn’t give him a kid. It was absolute lies. I don’t have anything to hide at this point.”
The star, who is appearing in the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, went on to say she felt “a little relief now” about being older and found it “liberating” because “there is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe’. I don’t have to think about that any more”, she explained.
“I’ve spent so many years protecting my story about IVF. I’m so protective of these parts because I feel like there’s so little that I get to keep to myself,” she continued.
IVF is a method of fertilization in which an egg is joined with sperm outside of the body and embryos are implanted in the mother’s womb.
“The [world] creates narratives that aren’t true, so I might as well tell the truth. I feel like I’m coming out of hibernation. I don’t have anything to hide,” Aniston added.