From family struggles to lost love, Jennifer Aniston has been through it while the whole world watched. From the outside, she seems to have it all, but she works hard to maintain balance in the unrelenting glare of the public eye.
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00:00From family struggles to lost love, Jennifer Aniston has been through it
00:04while the whole world watched. From the outside, she seems to have it all,
00:08but she works hard to maintain balance in the unrelenting glare of the public eye.
00:13Growing up as the daughter of two Hollywood actors may sound glamorous, but behind closed doors,
00:19it was a different story. Aniston described her childhood to Sandra Bullock in a piece
00:23for Interview, saying,
00:25I grew up in a household that was destabilized and felt unsafe,
00:29watching adults being unkind to each other, and witnessing certain things about human behavior
00:33that made me think, I don't want to do that, I don't want to be that."
00:37Aniston's dad was the longtime Days of Our Lives star John Aniston.
00:41What I really want is the respect of this town. The respect I deserve,
00:45considering all I've done for it."
00:47Her mom, Nancy Dow, was an actor and model who made very occasional TV guest appearances,
00:52but ultimately quit the business when she decided she wasn't any good.
00:56Judging by the frequency of Hollywood divorces, it's tough for two actors to live together. Maybe
01:00that's why John tried to steer Jen toward law school, because he couldn't imagine adding a
01:05third Hollywood career to the mix. Jen wasn't having it, though, as she told Collider,
01:09I was hoping that I was going to make it, so that I could prove him wrong."
01:13The fact that she did, far outshining the careers of both her parents,
01:17may not have made things easier for her on the home front.
01:20Aniston's mother, Nancy Dow, spent much of her daughter's childhood criticizing her looks,
01:25which ultimately led to them having little to no contact for years.
01:29In a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Aniston described growing up with her mom, saying,
01:34She was very critical of me, because she was a model. She was gorgeous,
01:37stunning. I wasn't. I never was. I honestly still don't think of myself in that sort of light,
01:42which is fine. She was also very unforgiving. She would hold grudges that I just found so petty."
01:49Somehow, though, perhaps through years of therapy,
01:51Aniston is able to see some of the good in her late mom. In an interview with Elle,
01:56she talked about one of the positive things she learned from her mother, sharing,
02:00I love entertaining. I always have food. I think I probably got that from my mom,
02:05who always had her girlfriends over. I picked it up from my childhood,
02:08just always hearing girls in the house and learning how to make a good cheese board."
02:13Then Dow committed a cardinal sin, writing a tell-all memoir about their relationship,
02:18including plenty of detail about Aniston's personal life. In a Woe Is Me interview with
02:22National Post, Dow doubled down, saying,
02:25You spend all this time raising a child, with a lot of good intentions,
02:29and you feel you have failed. It makes you feel very ashamed."
02:33The two didn't speak for nearly 15 years, but reconciled a year before Dow's death in 2016.
02:39Aniston's dad walked out on the family in 1980, when she was just 11 years old.
02:44My parents' divorce was really a curveball. It was really a big heartbreak."
02:52As Aniston recalled to the Daily Mail,
02:54I just remember sitting there crying, not understanding that he was gone.
02:58I don't remember anything other than it being odd that all of a sudden my father wasn't there.
03:02And he was gone for a while, about a year.
03:05John came back into his daughter's life as suddenly as he left it,
03:08calling up one day and inviting her to go see The Fantastics. Aniston shared,
03:13So we had a little dinner and saw the show. After that, I started seeing him on weekends.
03:17And this new way of life unfolded."
03:20Later in life, John apologized to his daughter,
03:22and the pair managed to heal their relationship. During the pandemic,
03:25the two were in touch every day, but soon after in 2022, John Aniston died.
03:30Jen paid tribute to him in a touching Instagram post, writing,
03:34Sweet Papa, you were one of the most beautiful humans I ever knew. I'll love you till the end
03:38of time." Aniston's relationship history is at least as well-known as her work on screen.
03:44While she has had her fair share of romance, it hasn't lasted long.
03:48When are you getting married?
03:49I don't know!
03:51Her marriages to actors Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux both ended in highly publicized divorces,
03:56but Aniston takes at least some responsibility for the breakups, admitting to The Wall Street Journal,
04:01It was always a little bit difficult for me in relationships.
04:04I think because I really was kind of alone. My parents,
04:08watching my family's relationship, didn't make me kind of go, oh, I can't wait to do that.
04:13But romantic love isn't all Aniston was after. Even as her career was skyrocketing in the late
04:191990s and throughout the 2000s, she wanted to start a family of her own.
04:23She underwent IVF treatments and changed her lifestyle to embrace more holistic habits,
04:28anything to help increase her chances of success. But nothing worked. She revealed to Allure,
04:34I was throwing everything at it. I would have given anything if someone had said to me,
04:39freeze your eggs, do yourself a favor. You just don't think it. So here I am today.
04:43The ship has sailed."
04:44To make matters worse, the media was constantly following her,
04:48checking for a baby bump. Meanwhile, Aniston was suffering. As she later shared,
04:53I'm not superhuman to the point where I can't let it penetrate and hurt.
04:57I feel like I've mothered many things, and I don't think it's
05:01fair to put that on, that pressure on, on people.
05:05She's now 55 years old, and has come to terms with the fact that a baby is not in the cards
05:10for her. Perhaps out of necessity, she's found a silver lining, saying,
05:14I have zero regrets. I actually feel a little relief now because I don't have to think about
05:19that anymore. Life in the public eye can bring unwanted, very personal attention,
05:24and Aniston has had her share of it, including a scary stalker.
05:28While she's never talked publicly about the ordeal, it was reported in 2010,
05:33according to a notice from her lawyer in pursuit of a restraining order,
05:36that a man was arrested after being found waiting for Aniston with a bag of sharp objects,
05:41tape, and handwritten love notes. The man had a history of violence,
05:45and he'd driven across the country to follow Aniston, sleeping in his car,
05:49on which he wrote a message proclaiming his love for her. But sometimes, as they sort of say,
05:53the creepy is coming from inside the house. Aniston has faced years of Hollywood sexism
05:58and paparazzi dogging her every move. She's addressed these issues head-on,
06:03even writing an op-ed for HuffPost in 2016, saying,
06:07If I am some kind of symbol to some people out there, then clearly I am an example of the lens
06:12through which we, as a society, view our mothers, daughters, sisters, wives,
06:16female friends, and colleagues. The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and
06:22disturbing. Out of necessity, Aniston has managed to find ways to fight back at the invasion of
06:27privacy she's not able to escape, writing,
06:30From years of experience, I've learned tabloid practices, however dangerous,
06:35will not change, at least not anytime soon. What can change is our awareness and reaction
06:40to the toxic messages buried within these seemingly harmless stories,
06:44served up as truth, and shaping our ideas of who we are.
06:48I am unprecedented.
06:50Aniston knows the unwanted attention isn't going to stop anytime soon, if ever. Instead,
06:55she's come to terms with the side effects of her massive fame, and what she needs to do to
06:59stay grounded, telling Elle,
07:01It's just self-preservation. It's a matter of choosing when I feel like I'm okay with having
07:06a bunch of people take a bunch of pictures of me.
07:09Don't forget to shut the door on your way out.
07:11Aniston, like many others, struggles with mental health issues. She has dealt with
07:16anger and depression for years, but during quarantine, she was able to step back and
07:20finally take the time she needed to process things in a healthy way. In an interview with InStyle,
07:25she shared,
07:26My level of anxiety has gone down by eliminating the unnecessary sort of fat in life that I had
07:31thought was necessary, also realizing that you can't please everybody. And what good does that
07:36do if you're just little bits of yourself? Let's try to be the full all of who we are,
07:41so we can come to the table.
07:43Aniston freely admits that her tight inner circle helps keep her grounded and in touch
07:48with the positive things in life. She has a number of lifelong friends, including the actual cast of
07:53Friends, who have been crucial in helping her find and maintain balance and vice versa. The way
07:59Aniston puts it, they feed off of each other to help encourage growth and positivity. As she told
08:04the News International,
08:05There's nothing wrong with needing support. We're all human, and we all have our ups and downs.
08:11In October 2023, Aniston's close friend Matthew Perry died suddenly from an accidental drug
08:17overdose. Aniston and Perry first met in the early 1990s, and were BFFs from the start. In fact,
08:23in Perry's 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he admitted that he once had
08:29a crush on his co-star, writing,
08:31I was immediately taken by her. How could I not be? And I liked her. And I got the sense
08:36she was intrigued too. Maybe it was going to be something.
08:39It was definitely something, although probably not what the young Perry wanted at the time.
08:44Aniston turned him down when he asked her on a date, but knowing what we know about Aniston's
08:49romantic history, he may have lucked out. What he got was a lifelong friend. After Perry's
08:54untimely death, Aniston took to Instagram to pay tribute, writing,
08:58We loved him deeply. He was such a part of our DNA. He made all of us laugh, and laugh hard.
09:04Maddie, I love you so much, and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain.
09:10I talk to you every day. Sometimes I can almost hear you saying,
09:13Could you be any crazier?
09:16If you or anyone you know needs help with substance abuse,
09:20visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
09:25SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. 4357.