Jennifer Aniston clapped back at rumors that she didn’t have any children because she was too focused on her career, especially after her 2005 divorce from Brad Pitt.

Jennifer Aniston is standing up for herself.

The Friends alum set the record straight about public narratives suggesting she decided not to have children due to her focus on her career, especially following her 2005 divorce from Brad Pitt.

“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,” Jennifer told Harper’s Bazaar U.K. in an interview published Oct. 8. “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,” she continued. “It does affect me—I’m just a human being. We’re all human beings.”

The 56-year-old—who underwent years of in-vitro fertilization (IVF)—ultimately decided to write a 2016 HuffPost op-ed slamming the insensitive treatment of women by the media.

“That’s why I thought, ‘What the hell?'” she recalled of the essay. “I knew a lot of women at the time who were trying to have kids, who were dealing with IVF. So it did feel like it was not only for myself, but for any women who were struggling with the same issue.”

With the media landscape shifting, Jennifer—who soft-launched her romance with hypnotherapist Jim Curtis last month—did acknowledge that the days of the “circle of shame” have continued to diminish.

The Morning Show star previously shared insight into the “many years” she spent keeping her fertility journey out of the public eye.

“I was trying to get pregnant,” she told Allure in November 2022. “It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road.”

“All the years and years and years of speculation… It was really hard,” she reflected. “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 favor.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.”

Although Jennifer wasn’t able to get pregnant, she doesn’t regret trying every possible remedy. She emphasized, “I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.’ I don’t have to think about that anymore.”

For more celebs who’ve spoken about their fertility journey, keep reading.