Once upon a time, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were America’s sweethearts. But their fairytale love story came to an end after seven years when they separated and eventually divorced. After the breakup, Jennifer Aniston was never the same. There were many different speculations about why the couple broke up, but Aniston stayed classy and avoided discussing it with the media, very rarely hinting at what went wrong. She did throw shade at him in a Vanity Fair interview, saying, “There’s a sensitivity chip that’s missing.” Ouch! This is a long way from gushing about him in an interview with Primetime. In 2022, she told Allure that she has gratitude for the bad things that happened to her, and without them, she would have remained fearful, nervous, and unsure of her identity. Here are all the ways her life changed after the split.
She went to therapy after the split
To process her feelings after the divorce, she admitted to “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that she went to therapy and gained further closure by doing the movie “The Break-Up”. Aniston is a major fan of therapy and it goes back farther than Brad. She admitted that her parents getting divorced impacted all her relationships, and therapy helped her heal and reclaim her journey.
She made self-care a priority
For Jennifer Aniston, self-care meant treating herself like you’d treat your BFF: with compassion and kindness. She told Vanity Fair, “I feel like I’m nesting. I love being home.” While she did suffer with loneliness, stepping back from the public eye helped her rediscover herself. She redesigned their shared home to give it more of her vibe, with warmer, cozier touches rather than the uncomfortable and sterile modern aesthetic he preferred.
She leaned on her support network and played hostess
Playing Rachel on “Friends” gave her a family for life, and beyond her castmates, she really leaned on all her loved ones post-breakup. She regularly hosts social events at her home, specifically one called “Sunday Funday.” Her friend Kristin Hahn said, “You go to her house, and everything’s warm and cozy. If it’s wintertime, there’s a fire going, the bar’s open, and dinner at Jen’s house tastes unlike any other dinner. I mean, I’ve been eating in her ‘house restaurant’ for 20 years now and I swear there’s, like, an aphrodisiac in that food.” Sunday Funday regulars include Jason Bateman and his family, as well as Jimmy Kimmel.
She stopped taking things personally
There were lots of cruel things written about Aniston after the divorce, like the fact that Brad Pitt left because she valued work over kids, or the rumors of his affair with Angelina Jolie. She told The Hollywood Reporter that while she initially took things personally, she realized it wasn’t important what narratives others crafted, saying, so, you disappear as much as you can, you have fun, you take on these weird roles, you enjoy yourself, you remember that you have a gorgeous group of friends and your life is blessed, and you do the best that you can.”
After fertility struggles, she came to a place of acceptance
Many wondered if these two celebrities would have kids during their time together. While they remained private about their journey at the time, Aniston spoke to Allure in 2022 that she had tried for many years to get pregnant through Eastern medicine, IVF, and other solutions. Since she didn’t freeze her eggs, it never happened. Aniston says she felt a little relief after accepting she wouldn’t be a mother, even though the media called her selfish, and said that angered her since she did try for so many years.
She started to take on meatier roles to heal
Straying from the rom-com genre was essential to Jen’s healing journey. She started to take more dramatic, complicated roles that she could immerse herself in, such as “Dumplin’,” which spoke to the relationship she has with her own mother. Aniston told Elle that while her mom was hypercritical of her, she was treated like that. Getting a starring role on “The Morning Show” was also cathartic since her character also had her private life picked apart by both the public and the media. She told ET, “That show was 20 years of therapy wrapped into 10 episodes.”
She experienced a rebirth of success after her work acting and producing on “The Morning Show”
Jennifer Aniston was an “it girl” during her marriage to Brad, and she reprised that title again with the wildly successful “The Morning Show,” which helped her embrace the beauty of female collaboration, as she worked alongside fellow costar and executive producer Reese Witherspoon. Witherspoon told Glamour that working alongside strong female leaders created a “very respectful work dynamic.” This demonstrates the immense potential of female empowerment!
Today, she focuses on what brings her peace and happiness
At 56 years old, Jennifer Aniston is still pursuing her happiness. After the divorce, she moved on with Justin Theroux, but the couple broke up in late 2017. But she’s learned that your happiness doesn’t have to rely on a man, which is an old and sexist trope—the same one that calls women spinsters. Today, she defines happiness on her own terms, telling Elle, “What brings me happiness? I have a great job. I have a great family. I have great friends. I have no reason to feel otherwise.”