Jennifer Aniston Opens Up About Why She’s Never Adopted Amid All the Baby Rumors

Jennifer Aniston has been under the spotlight since she was just a kid herself. Being a big name in Hollywood, it’s pretty much guaranteed that people are going to poke into her personal life, especially when it comes to starting a family. She’s talked before about why she never had kids, but in a recent podcast, she got real about why adoption isn’t on the table for her either.

Over the years, Aniston’s romantic life has been front-page news. She’s had two marriages—to Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux—and now she’s in a relationship with hypnotist Jim Curtis. Sure, her love stories make for juicy gossip in magazines and online, but there are parts of her life she’d rather keep to herself.

All that attention on her relationships naturally led to endless questions about whether she’d ever have children. Eventually, it got to her, and she decided to set the record straight. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she basically said, “Look, it’s nobody’s business,” but she opened up anyway to shut down the wild rumors.

“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,” the award-winning actress told Harper’s Bazaar. “It does affect me—I’m just a human being. We’re all human beings. That’s why I thought, ‘What the hell?’”

Jennifer Aniston Gets Candid on Why Adoption Isn’t for Her

Aniston shared that she’d quietly gone through IVF treatments and felt like it was time to talk about it publicly.

“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,” the star of The Morning Show explained. “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.”

Adoption is an option for lots of people who can’t conceive naturally, but for Aniston, it’s not something she’s interested in. As People reported, during a Wondery+ Early Access episode of the Armchair Expert podcast (which drops on October 20), the 56-year-old made it clear: she just doesn’t want to go that route.

“I want my own DNA in a little person. That’s the only way, selfish or not, whatever that is, I’ve wanted it,” Aniston said.