For nearly two decades, a pervasive narrative has defined the end of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt’s iconic Hollywood marriage. Now, at 55, Jennifer Aniston has finally broken her silence, revealing a deeply personal and long-hidden struggle that reframes the entire story of their infamous separation.

In a stunningly candid interview with Allure magazine, Aniston confessed that contrary to years of tabloid speculation, the reason she did not have children with Pitt was not a choice to prioritize her career. Instead, she was privately enduring a difficult and painful battle with infertility.

“It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” Aniston shared, revealing her secret for the first time. “All the years and years and years of speculation… It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it.”

This confession shatters the long-held, painful narrative that painted Aniston as “selfish” and singularly focused on her career, implying this was the reason her marriage ended and Pitt left her for Angelina Jolie. Aniston directly addressed these hurtful rumors.

“They were absolute lies,” she stated emphatically. “The narrative was that I was just selfish… that I just cared about my career. And 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.”

This revelation adds a poignant layer of context to one of Hollywood’s most dissected breakups. Aniston and Pitt, who met in 1994 and married in 2000, were the industry’s golden couple. Their separation in January 2005, following intense speculation about Pitt’s relationship with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star, Angelina Jolie, became a global media frenzy.

While the world watched Pitt and Jolie’s romance blossom publicly—with photos of them on a beach in Kenya with her son Maddox surfacing just months after the split—Aniston was not only grieving the end of her marriage in the public eye but also dealing with the private pain of her unsuccessful fertility journey.

“I have zero regrets,” Aniston affirmed in the interview. “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.” She did, however, express a wish that she had been advised to freeze her eggs when she was younger, admitting that “the ship has sailed.”

Over the years, both stars moved on. Pitt built a large family with Jolie before their own contentious divorce, while Aniston had high-profile relationships, including a marriage to Justin Theroux.

Despite their separate paths, public fascination with a potential Aniston-Pitt reunion never faded. Their friendly interactions, including Pitt’s attendance at her 50th birthday party in 2019 and a viral, warm exchange at the 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards, fueled endless speculation. Both have consistently maintained they are simply good friends.

Now, with her truth finally revealed, Aniston has reclaimed her story from the tabloids. Her journey, once defined by a supposed choice between career and family, is now understood as a silent struggle shared by millions of women. In her new chapter, Aniston is reportedly considering adoption, seeking to fulfill her long-held desire to become a mother on her own terms.