Friendly Exes

Justin Theroux Responds to Jennifer Aniston Sharing Her Fertility Journey

The Friends star spoke for the first time this week about undergoing IVF and the “challenging road” towards trying to get pregnant.
Justin Theroux Responds to Jennifer Aniston Sharing Her Fertility Journey
by Jason Merritt/TERM/Getty Images

Justin Theroux showed his support for his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston after she spoke out about her struggles with IVF for the first time and her decision ultimately to not become a mother.

In a cover interview for Allure's December issue, the Friends star shared that she tried to get pregnant numerous times via IVF throughout her late 30s and 40s with no success. On Wednesday, she shared a few of the photos from the editorial that accompanied that story on her Instagram account, writing in the caption, “End of an era. Thank you @allure for making me the cover girl of your very last print issue.” Many of Aniston's celebrity friends were quick to jump in the comments and commend her on being so candid about her fertility journey as well as the very sexy photo shoot. One of those comments came from Theroux who showed his support my leaving a simple first bump and heart emoji under the post. The pair first got together in 2011, getting engaged a year later and then secretly marrying in a backyard ceremony in 2015. Although they divorced in 2018, they remain close friends and even still regularly text and FaceTime.

Aniston shared in her conversation with the magazine that going through these multiple unsuccessful rounds of IVF all while the tabloids furiously speculated about whether or not she was secretly pregnant, “was really 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.” And even though she may no longer be able to have children, the actor added, “I have zero regrets. I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.’ I don’t have to think about that anymore.”

She added that that particular moment in her life wasn't only painful because of her inability to conceive, but because of the sexist stories about her being pushed in the press. “The narrative that I was just selfish,” Aniston explained, “I just cared about my career. And God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child. 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.” She continued, “I got so frustrated. Hence that op-ed I wrote [for The Huffington Post in 2016, slamming the media for its obsession with her being pregnant and its treatment of women, generally]. I was like, ‘I’ve just got to write this because it’s so maddening and I’m not superhuman to the point where I can’t let it penetrate and hurt.’”