Jennifer Aniston was the target of several hateful comments in the past where people even said her marriage with Brad Pitt ended because of her choice not to have kids.
Jennifer Aniston is currently single, but she's been married twice, first to Brad Pitt and then to Justin Theroux. She has no children of her own, and throughout her career, she has been subjected to mean rumors from people about how she chose her "career over her kids".
The actress, 52, talked to The Hollywood Reporter about how her personal life has always been under scrutiny and how her own personal choices seemed to cause problems to other people, explaining that past pregnancy rumors were painful for her to see. The comments really got vile after people suggested that Brad Pitt and Aniston got a divorce because Aniston was unwilling to have kids with him, according to BuzzFeed News.
"People certainly project onto you and all that, but my job is to go, 'Listen, I'll show you what I'm capable of, and you decide if you want to subscribe,'" said Aniston about attention toward her private life. "So you disappear as much as you can, you have fun, you take on these weird roles, you don't give a s---, you enjoy yourself, you remember that you have a gorgeous group of friends and your life is blessed and you do the best that you can."
"I used to take it all very personally — the pregnancy rumors and the whole 'Oh, she chose career over kids' assumption," she continued. "It's like, 'You have no clue what's going with me personally, medically, why I can't … can I have kids?' They don't know anything, and it was really hurtful and just nasty."
The Morning Show star compared tabloids from back then to what is happening on social media now, and said, "What the tabloids and the media did to people's personal lives back then, regular people are doing now [on social media]. Although I haven't seen a tabloid in so long. Am I still having twins? Am I going to be the miracle mother at 52?"
"Now you've got social media," she said. "It's almost like the media handed over the sword to any Joe Schmo sitting behind a computer screen to be a troll or whatever they call them and bully people in comment sections. So it's just sort of changed hands in a way. And I don't know why there's such a cruel streak in society. I often wonder what they get off on."
She then spoke about how these questions and issues only apply to women and not men. "Men can be married as many times as they want to, they can marry women in their 20s or 30s. Women aren't allowed to do that," she said.
"Men in their 30s, by the way, are way different from men in their 40s and 50s. And late 20s even — it's a whole new world that I'm finding is alive and kicking and they're not … what was my point? Oh, about maintaining a little bit of mystery so that people can suspend disbelief when they see you in character. I guess I feel like if you're doing what you do well enough, you should be able to do it. And if you're not, you probably shouldn't do it anymore."
Having a child or not is a personal choice and it is an individual's right to make this choice. Who are we to bully her, comment on her choices or bully her for the same?
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Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Jason Merritt
