Jennifer Aniston has never shied away from the truth, even when it gets messy. Talking about her split from Brad Pitt—a breakup that practically became tabloid fuel—she described it as one of the roughest stretches of her life.
In Vanity Fair’s September cover story, Aniston, now 56, revisited that “vulnerable time” after her marriage ended. The media circus? It was relentless, and it got to her. “I haven’t looked at that article in forever,” she admitted, thinking back to her 2005 Vanity Fair interview.
Jennifer Aniston recalls a jarring experience
“I just remember the experience—pretty jarring, honestly. Definitely one for the memoirs.” Back then, she says the only advice she could muster for herself was, “Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on walking, girl.”
Their story started before the headlines. Aniston and Pitt first met in 1994 through their managers, but sparks didn’t fly until 1998. They got engaged at a Sting concert in ‘99 (as you do), and tied the knot in Malibu the next year. By 2004, Aniston was ready for the next chapter—she told The Guardian she wanted a family. “It’s time… I think you can work with a baby, I think you can work pregnant, I think you can do all of it,” she said at the time.
Jennifer Aniston on split with Brad Pitt: It was such juicy reading for people
Looking back, Aniston knows the public was hooked on every detail. “It was such juicy reading for people,” she said. “If they didn’t have their soap operas, they had their tabloids. It’s a shame that it had to happen, but it happened. And boy did I take it personally.”
She admits the constant attention and speculation wore her down. “I didn’t have a strong enough constitution to not get affected by it,” she said.
The timeline got complicated. Aniston and Pitt’s divorce was finalized in 2005, but they’d already separated in 2004. The next year, Pitt and Angelina Jolie—who had been at the center of all those swirling rumors—welcomed their first child together. The so-called “love triangle” was everywhere.
Brad Pitt’s romantic history is, of course, Hollywood legend—he dated Gwyneth Paltrow before Aniston, but it was his relationship with Aniston, and their painful breakup, that became the stuff of celebrity lore.
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