Jennifer Aniston has spoken out about going through in vitro fertilization, all while coping with the public pressure to become a mother.
The 53-year-old actress sat down with Allure magazine for a candid interview about her hair-care line LolaVie and the unfortunate pregnancy rumors that tormented her for years.
While the star was going on to have a successful acting career, behind the scenes, she was trying to start a family and secretly endured a "challenging road" with IVF.
"I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road," the Just Go With It actress shared.
Check out Aniston's cover story below:Undergoing IVF fertility treatments is a difficult process. For Aniston, there was the added pressure of the public and paparazzi being on the lookout for a potential baby bump.
"All the years and years and years of speculation... It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it," she said.
The Morning Show actress also reflected on her previous experience and expressed disappointment that she didn't freeze her eggs years ago.
While Aniston didn't reveal what exact age she was when she started IVF treatments, she did say that enough time has passed to accept that she has "zero regrets" about the process.
Furthermore, while chatting with the publication the star said that the pregnancy rumors weren't always what got under her skin, but rather the assumption that she was "selfish" for focusing on her career.
"(People thought) 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," Aniston said.
"It was absolute lies. I don’t have anything to hide at this point," she added.
This isn't the first time the Friends alum has opened up about the impact media scrutiny of her personal life has had on her. Back in 2016, she wrote a critical op-ed for HuffPost, addressing false pregnancy reports at the time.
"For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up," she wrote. "Here's where I come out on this topic: We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies."
"That decision is ours and ours alone. Let's make that decision for ourselves and for the young women in this world who look to us as examples. Let's make that decision consciously, outside of the tabloid noise," she continued.
"We don't need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own 'happily ever after' for ourselves," she said, adding, "I have grown tired of being part of this narrative."
The Murder Mystery actress also spoke about the topic to The Hollywood Reporter last December and said that she used to take questions on motherhood "all very personally" at the time.
"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," she added
