For years people said Jennifer Aniston was "too selfish" to have kids. She was trying to get pregnant.

For years, Jennifer Aniston has been plagued by pregnancy rumours. 

"Pregnant and alone." "Finally, a baby." "Miracle baby at 48," the headlines read.

Now, the 53-year-old has shared during "all the years and years and years of speculation," she was going through IVF. 

Speaking about her fertility struggles for the first time in a new interview for Allure, the Friends star shared she was "trying to get pregnant" several years ago.

"It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it," she told the publication.

"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."

Introducing our December cover star, #JenniferAniston.
She has spent most of her adult life in the spotlight, with all its glare. At 53, she opens up about her path to leaving regrets and some deeply personal pain behind. https://t.co/2x254s1EWk pic.twitter.com/Z4WMUTrDDt

— Allure (@Allure_magazine) November 9, 2022

Aniston went on to address the years of tabloid speculation including the "narrative that I was just selfish" and focused more on her career rather than having kids. 

"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. It was absolute lies. I don’t have anything to hide at this point."

Despite her fertility struggles, The Morning Show actor shared that she has zero regrets and now "actually feels a little relief."

"There is no more, 'Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.'I don’t have to think about that anymore," she explained.  

"I’ve spent so many years protecting my story about IVF," she said. "I’m so protective of these parts because I feel like there’s so little that I get to keep to myself."

Listen to this episode of The Spill. Post continues after podcast.

Now, Aniston, who was previously married to Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux, says "I don’t have anything to hide." 

"The [world] creates narratives that aren’t true, so I might as well tell the truth. I feel like I’m coming out of hibernation."

Last year, she shared how "hurtful" the rumours were over the years, in a profile for The Hollywood Reporter. 

"I used to take it all very personally - the pregnancy rumours and the whole, 'Oh, she chose career over kids' assumption. It’s like, 'You have no clue what’s going on with me personally, medically, why I can’t... can I have kids?'" she told the publication at the time. 

"They don’t know anything, and it was really hurtful and just nasty."

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Years earlier, she again called out the "reckless" assumptions that she was too "selfish" and career focused to have a baby. 

"The misconceptions are, 'Jen can't keep a man,' and 'Jen refuses to have a baby because she's selfish and committed to her career.' Or that I'm sad and heartbroken. First, with all due respect, I'm not heartbroken," she told InStyle in 2018.

"And second, those are reckless assumptions. They don't know what I've been through medically or emotionally. There is a pressure on women to be mothers, and if they are not, then they’re deemed damaged goods. Maybe my purpose on this planet isn’t to procreate. Maybe I have other things I’m supposed to do?" 

It's a message she has been echoing for years. 

"You may not have a child come out of your vagina, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t mothering – dogs, friends, friends' children," she told Allure in 2014.

"I don’t like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women - that you’ve failed yourself as a female because you haven’t procreated. I don’t think it’s fair."

READ: 'Am I going to be the miracle mother?' At 52, Jennifer Aniston is still facing the same question.

Feature Image: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty/Instagram@christiewhelanbrowne

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