Since her career-defining role on Friends in the '90s, Jennifer Aniston has never stopped being in the public eye. Her every decision—from fashion to the deeply personal—has been scrutinized under the magnifying lens of the public for nearly three decades now.
Media outlets and fans alike judge what choices she has made, which only intensified when the internet and social media came to be an omnipresent force in our lives.
Recently, Aniston,, now 56, stirred debate with a blunt, honest answer during an episode of the Armchair Expert podcast. When asked once again why she doesn't have children, including adopted ones, she reminded the host of her long struggles with infertility,
She said she didn't want to adopt because she wanted to have biological children of her own.
"When people say, 'But you can adopt,' I don't want to adopt. I want my own DNA in a little person. That's the only way, selfish or not, whatever that is, I've wanted it."
Most people were on board with this, but not all, of course.
Some who struggle with infertility use a surrogate, an issue not without its own ethical quagmire.
Aniston's struggles with infertility were carried out privately while her romantic relationships were splashed across tabloids, along with speculations that she was or wasn't pregnant, or that maybe she would still be with so-and-so if they had a baby.
Notably, this often centered on her relationship with Brad Pitt. The couple started dating in 1998 and were married from 2000 to 2005. After his split from Aniston, he married actor Angelina Jolie, with whom he has six children.
Meanwhile, Aniston was enduring multiple rounds of unsuccessful IVF, and in 2016, she brought her fertility issues to the public in a New York Times opinion piece.
Many people identified with Aniston's recounting of her difficult journey.
People were actually quite impressed by her blunt honesty in this case.
Aniston's most recent film role was as the "inner voice" of Melody Brooks in the movie Out of My Mind in 2024.
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