Jennifer Aniston Opens Up About Her Infertility Issue: The Mental Exhaustion and Toll Assumptions From People Can Cause

Jennifer Aniston is a very common household name. Probably because she was America’s sweetheart for quite a long time after the sitcom, ‘Friends’ pitched her career at a level where there was no looking back. She is a well-known actress who has appeared in countless TV shows and movies and every time she never disappoints. Being the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, she is every female’s ideal of what success looks like. Those not choked with jealousy, are filled with admiration. That’s how successful she is. This could be the reason why people made her business their business. The food she ate, whom she’s dating, where she went on vacation, who is her best friend and so on. Things that shouldn’t be anyone’s business about her life are now everyone’s business. Hmm… let’s call it the curse of being famous. I guess at the end of the day it has its perks and its cons at the same time.

Anyways, in 1999, Aniston went off the market when she got married to Brad Pitt, another American sweetheart to date. Unfortunately, in early 2005, this couple which had been dubbed ‘the hottest couple in Hollywood,’ announced their divorce. Thereafter speculations arose and every snoopy, nosey Tom, dick and Harry had something to say about it. It seems like they all lived in their house because they knew the reasons for the breakup and the reason speculated was that Aniston was too selfish. That she didn’t want to give Pitt (who very much wanted kids) babies and thus the breakup. However, candidly opening up about her fertility journey and what a difficult time the period was for her, shows how stupid, reckless and ungrounded speculations can affect someone. I mean folks, ‘they,’ (whoever they are) knew what they were talking about when they said, “Think before you talk.”

Jennifer admitted in an Allure magazine interview, “I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road. All the tears and years and years of speculation, it was hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it. 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.”

This makes me wonder. How many times as fans have we crucified celebrities because we think we’re entitled to their lives now that most fans have the attitude, “I’m the one making you have a career in the first place.” I mean, does it warrants us to forget they are human and just play around with their mental health? When Aniston was going through this journey, it did a number on her because no speculations were true and I can only imagine how much it hurt her knowing at the back of her mind that it was not by choice that she was childless. 

As people, we should be very conscious about other people, whether famous or not. We should keep at the back of our minds that words can break a person. We should always remember to do unto others what we would want them to do to us and that way, we will always remember how important it is to be humane and kind. The pro of Aniston opening up about her journey is that it made all other women facing the same challenge realize that it is not their fault. It has nothing to do with social status or God just not liking you enough. I guess it’s just one of the things that no one has control over and the whole idea is to find a way of maneuvering around it to not lose your mind at the end of the day. Why? Because when you don’t hear other people’s stories and realize you are not alone, you can easily believe that you are the only “unlucky” one and even lose your mind over it.

In my view, I think it was pretty brave of Aniston to open up about her situation. It’s been more than a decade, so we can only imagine how hard it was for her to even talk about it before. The fact that she can now candidly talk about the whole journey at that time and even crack jokes while at it, shows someone who has been through it, dusted themselves off and healed regardless. If that’s not your definition of strong, I don’t know what is.