Chief Lifestyle and Entertainment reporter Jenni Mortimer brings the week’s biggest entertainment stories.
Jennifer Aniston didn’t adopt a child during her struggle to become a mother because she wanted to have her “own DNA in a little person”.
The former Friends star, 56, recently opened up about her 20-year battle to start a family – revealing she went through many rounds of unsuccessfulIVF treatments – and now she’s explained why she didn’t turn to adoption.
During an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast, Aniston said: “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.”
Co-host Monica Padman asked the actor if she’s found “peace” after her fertility struggles and Aniston replied: “It’s so peaceful. But I will say there’s a point where it’s like out of my control. There’s literally nothing I can do about it.”
Jennifer Aniston has described her 20-year struggle with unsuccessful IVF treatments and the emotional impact. Photo / GC Images
Aniston acknowledged she has had relationships with men and thought they “would have made some good kids” but she admits the thought often passed “within three seconds”.
“It [having kids] just wasn’t in the plan, whatever the plan was. It’s very emotional, especially in the moment when they say ‘that’s it’, because there is a weird moment when that happens.”
The Morning Show star spoke out about her IVF struggles in 2022 when she told Allure magazine: “My late 30s, 40s, I’d gone through really hard s***, and if it wasn’t for going through that, I would’ve never become who I was meant to be. I was trying to get pregnant.
“It 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 favour.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed. But I have zero regrets.”
Aniston spoke about her struggle again in a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK, admitting she hated the “false narrative” that she decided against having children because she is a “workaholic”.
She said: “They didn’t know my story, or what I’d been going through over the past 20 years to try to pursue a family, because I don’t go out there and tell them my medical woes.
“That’s not anybody’s business. But there comes a point when you can’t not hear it – the narrative about how I won’t have a baby, won’t have a family, because I’m selfish, a workaholic.
“It does affect me – I’m just a human being. We’re all human beings. That’s why I thought: ‘What the hell?’”
