Justin Theroux shared a sweet birthday post dedicated to his ex Jennifer Aniston who turned 52 on February 11.

Taking to his Instagram Story, Theroux, 49, tagged the Friends actress in a black and white photo, captioning it: “Happy Birthday Jennifer Aniston.”

The actor evidently still has platonic love for his former flame as he also made sure to include a red heart emoji so that the second half of the caption read: "Love you B [his nickname for Aniston]."

The couple called it quits back in February of 2017 after two years of marriage and seven years together.

In a joint statement that they released to the Associated Press, Aniston and Theroux revealed that their decision to break up was "mutual and lovingly made at the end of last year."

Despite no longer being together, the pair seem to have remained good friends. In fact, every year since their break up, Theroux has sent Aniston a birthday tribute on social media.

And now that The Morning Show star is on Instagram herself – after joining in 2019, Theroux is finally able to actually tag her in the yearly birthday posts.

A little while after the couple called it quits back in 2018, Aniston spoke to ELLE  about her former romances, which included her famous marriage to Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005.

"My marriages, they've been very successful, in [my] personal opinion," Aniston told the magazine. "And when they came to an end, it was a choice that was made because we chose to be happy, and sometimes happiness didn't exist within that arrangement anymore." 

She added:

"Sure, there were bumps, and not every moment felt fantastic, obviously, but at the end of it, this is our one life and I would not stay in a situation out of fear. Fear of being alone. Fear of not being able to survive. 

“To stay in a marriage based on fear feels like you're doing your one life a disservice. When the work has been put in and it doesn't seem that there's an option of it working, that's okay. That's not a failure."

Jennifer Aniston has confessed that her relationships are "still a challenge" due to her parents' divorce.

The actress opened up about the issue during a new cover story interview with The Wall Street Journal in which she told the outlet that her love life is "sort of the one area that’s a little [lacking]" right now.

"Watching my family’s relationship didn’t make me kind of go, ;Oh, I can’t wait to do that,'" she said. "It was always a little bit difficult for me in relationships, I think, because I really was kind of alone."

"I didn’t like the idea of sacrificing who you were or what you needed, so I didn’t really know how to do that," she added.

The 54-year-old's mom, Nancy Dow, and dad, John Aniston, got divorced during her childhood and it seems as though the after-effects continue to cause ripples in her life.

"It was almost easier to just be kind of solo. So I didn’t have any real training in that give-and-take," she continued before adding that she was working on "not being afraid to say what you need and what you want," in a relationship.

"It’s still a challenge for me in a relationship," she concluded.

The former Friends star has been married twice before - the first being to Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005 and the second to Justin Theroux which started in 2015 and subsequently ended in 2018, though she remains friends with both her exes.

While speaking to Elle, she described both her previous marriages as "successful" despite them coming to an end.

"My marriages, they’ve been very successful, in [my] personal opinion," the We're The Millers star said during a feature interview. "And when they came to an end, it was a choice that was made because we chose to be happy, and sometimes happiness didn’t exist within that arrangement anymore."

The actress then emphasized that she would not be living in a situation she didn't want to be in just out of the fear of being alone.

"To stay in a marriage based on fear feels like you’re doing your one life a disservice," she said. "When the work has been put in and it doesn’t seem that there’s an option of it working, that’s okay. That’s not a failure. We have these clichés around all of this that need to be reworked and retooled, you know? Because it’s very narrow-minded thinking."

And she had some wise words about how women should not be defined by their marital status because it diminishes their own accolades.

"You’re diminishing everything I have succeeded at, and that I have built and created," she told the outlet. "It’s such a shallow lens that people look through. It’s the only place to point a finger at me as though it’s my damage—like it’s some sort of a scarlet letter on me that I haven’t yet procreated, or maybe won’t ever procreate.”

"Everybody’s path is different," she added.

Featured Image Credit: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty

Regardless of the fact that celebrities are often exceptionally good looking, and have stacks of cash in the bank, they too struggle in the pursuit of everlasting love. While everyone can tell when a celebrity affair is headed to disaster (normally whenever Taylor Swift is involved), there are a few that seem so perfect that vast swathes of the internet brand them "couple goals". There's Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, and of course, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend.

However - as the last few months have proved - the course of true love never does run smooth. Veritable golden couple, Chris Pratt and Anna Faris announced their separation after eight years of marriage last August, and now Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux have called it quits too. The Friends star and Theroux had been together for seven years, after meeting on the set of 2008's Tropic Thunder. They wed two and a half years ago in a "surprise" ceremony.

And as could be expected, the rumour-mill has gone into overdrive. While most tabloids are churning out the usual intel - that Aniston still believes in love, that their relationship had been in trouble for a while, and that the possibility of a reconciliation with Brad Pitt is highly unlikely - US Weekly has a slightly wilder take. Apparently, a source has revealed that Jennifer Aniston kept post-it notes that Brad Pitt wrote her during their marriage, and Justin Theroux found them.

While we're not ones to buy into tabloid speculation, this story is so out there that it could possibly, just possibly, be true. A source told US Weekly that Justin Theroux reportedly "stumbled upon old Post-it notes Brad had written". They were allegedly "Sweet little Post-its like, ‘You looked nice tonight’ or ‘Miss you already."

Unsurprisingly, these notes had a big impact on their relationship. "Jen assured him they weren’t a big deal, but Justin wasn’t thrilled… Justin had moments of insecurity like that," the source continued.

I mean, we're just grateful that he didn't break up with her on a post-it note - á la Sex and the City.

Other publications, however, have stayed away from the speculation and have tried to shut down rumours that Brad-Jen 2.0 could happen."They’ve been over each other for longer than they were ever together," a source, reportedly with knowledge of Aniston's and Pitt's current relationship, told People. "Now you add six kids on his side and each of them having their own assorted battle scars into the mix? Forget it. It’s not going to happen."

In a statement to The Associated Press, the pair announced that the decision to separate was "mutual" and "lovingly made at the end of last year".

"We are two best friends who have decided to part ways as a couple, but look forward to continuing our cherished friendship. Normally we would do this privately, but given that the gossip industry cannot resist an opportunity to speculate and invent, we wanted to convey the truth directly. Whatever else is printed about us that is not directly from us, is someone else’s fictional narrative. Above all, we are determined to maintain the deep respect and love that we have for one another," Aniston and Theroux stated.

While there's no way to asses the reliability of such assertions, one thing's for sure, people are still carrying a torch for Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt. I mean, it's been 13 years, folks - how many is it going to take for you to get over this one?

Friends star Jennifer Aniston has some choice words for anyone who chooses to judge her for not having children.

The actress, 56, famously wrote an op-ed for The Huffington Post in 2016, addressing long-standing misconceptions that she had always prioritised her work over starting a family.

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar UK, Aniston admitted that she was inspired to write the piece - where she addressed publicly for the first time her attempts at IVF - was a "what the hell" moment inspired in part by her empathy for other women also dealing with fertility issues.

How Jennifer Aniston addressed rumours surrounding her personal life

"They didn’t know my story or what I’d been going through over the past 20 years to try to pursue a family," she told the magazine.

"I don't go out [in public] and tell them about my medical woes.

"That's not anybody's business."

Aniston went on to say that: "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."

Having shot to superstardom in the 90s as a cast mate in the sitcom Friends, Aniston reached the upper echelons of Hollywood by marrying Brad Pitt in 2000, although the pair would famously divorce in 2005, following speculation that Pitt had cheated on Aniston with his future wife Angelina Jolie on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith.

Following her split from Pitt, Aniston would go on to marry actor Justin Theroux in 2011.

The pair confirmed their split in 2017, but remain friends.

In her 2016 op-ed, Aniston candidly shared that while "I may become a mother some day [...] I’m not in pursuit of motherhood because I feel incomplete in some way, as our celebrity news culture would lead us all to believe."

Not that you can tell that Aniston is sweating any of the speculation about her personal life.

Professionally, she's still as busy as ever.

Joining forces with Reese Witherspoon (who famously played the spoiled little sister of her character, Rachel Green, in Friends) in 2019, Aniston currently leads the Apple TV drama The Morning Show as news anchor Alex Levy.

So far, Aniston has picked up two Emmy nominations in 2020 and 2024 for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work on The Morning Show, although she has yet to win.

The Morning Show is currently airing its fourth season right now, while Aniston will next be seen in the highly anticipated TV adaptation of former Nickelodeon child star Jennette McCurdy's acclaimed 2022 memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died.

Aniston is set to star as McCurdy's troubled and controlling mother, Debra, who died from cancer in 2013.