Jennifer Aniston doesn’t have any kids of her own, but it’s not because she didn’t want to be a mom. During a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK, the Friends actress opened up spending about 20 years dealing with fertility struggles as she tried to get pregnant and start a family. In spite of these challenges and her desire to have children, Jennifer never adopted any kids. On a Wondery+ early access episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, she explained why she didn’t want to — and some people didn’t exactly love the way she framed it.
Jennifer said her preferences might be ‘selfish.’
Previously, the 56-year-old told Allure that she went through IVF and drank “Chinese teas” to try to get pregnant. When she continued to struggle with infertility, people mentioned adoption as an option. But for Jennifer, it didn’t feel right. “When people say, ‘But you can adopt,’ I don’t want to adopt,” she said on the recent podcast episode. “I want my own DNA in a little person. That’s the only way, selfish or not, whatever that is, I’ve wanted it.”
Some people had a problem with the way she worded it.
Reacting to Jennifer’s views on adoption on Reddit, one person wrote, “I’m not the biggest fan of people going ‘Just adopt!!’. I think it can border on treating children as commodities, but when people say [expletive] like this, they make parenthood sound like it’s way more about their own ego than a genuine desire to nurture and care.”
Another person said, “I do have some trouble understanding people who want kids so much that they will go through all kinds of treatments to have biological kids then when they find out they can’t have biological kids are like ‘I don’t want kids then.'”
Others could understand Jennifer, but had a problem with her phrasing. “I understand what she’s saying but surely there was another way to word this,” one of them wrote.
However, many others argued that Jennifer’s preferences seemed totally valid.
Many of the people who defended her asserted that adoption is not a solution to or treatment for infertility. “Not everyone can or should adopt, I’m glad she understood that about herself,” one person wrote in her defense. “Adoption tends to be pushed as a solution to infertility while ignoring how that will affect the children who in many cases will know they are viewed as second best to bio kids by those parents.”
A second person wrote, “Adoption is not for everyone and the onus to adopt should not solely be placed on infertile people. Wanting a child doesn’t mean adoption is the right choice for you and that’s okay, which seems to be what she’s trying to say.”
Many fans are begging people to stop asking Jennifer about her infertility struggles.
During her recent Harper’s Bazaar UK interview, Jennifer addressed the media’s obsession with her not having children. As people spent years speculating about whether Jennifer would have kids, she was dealing with fertility struggles privately. “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,” she said. “That’s not anybody’s business.”
As she navigated those challenges, she also had to deal with people criticizing her and making assumptions. “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 said. “It does affect me — I’m just a human being. We’re all human beings. That’s why I thought, ‘What the hell?’”
When it comes to Jennifer’s decision to not adopt children, people had a similar reaction: “Can we stop pestering her about her infertility?” one person wrote.
Someone else agreed, adding, “I feel like people should leave her alone about the kids thing at this point. They don’t harass men about children.”
