Why Jennifer Aniston Never Wanted to Adopt Kids

4 hours ago 1

Jennifer Aniston Slams Narrative She "Won't Have a Baby" Because She's "Selfish"

Jennifer Aniston is open about her fertility journey.

After previously detailing her struggles to get pregnant over the years, The Morning Show actress revealed why she never made the decision to adopt.

"When people say, 'But you can adopt,' I don't want to adopt," Jennifer said on the early access episode of The Armchair Expert podcast Oct. 14. "I want my own DNA in a little person. That's the only way, selfish or not, whatever that is, I've wanted it."

And while she now feels “peaceful” about not being a mom, Jennifer shared it was her body that ultimately made the decision for her.

"There's a point where it's out of my control,” the 56-year-old said. “There's literally nothing I can do about it."

"It just wasn't in the plan, whatever the plan was," she continued. “It's very emotional, especially in the moment when they say 'that's it,' because there is a weird moment when that happens."

Over the years, Jennifer has been candid about her private journey with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) amid public speculation about whether or not she would have kids.

"I was trying to get pregnant," she told Allure in  an interview published November 2022. "It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road." 

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Jennifer—who is in a relationship with Jim Curtis—has also defended herself against the narrative that she chose her career over kids in the years following her divorce from Brad Pitt in 2005.

"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," Jennifer told Harper's Bazaar U.K. in an interview published Oct. 8. "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," she continued. "It does affect me—I'm just a human being. We're all human beings." 

For more stars who have shared their fertility journeys, keep reading…

Bella Robertson/Instagram

Bella Robertson

The Duck Dynasty star and husband Jacob Mayo have been open about why it’s important for them to give insight into their fertility struggles on her family’s new reality series. 

“We share the story of infertility in the show and that’s something that we haven’t really shared publicly that much, but that’s something that others just don’t know.” Bella said in a joint May 2025 interview with Jacob for Us Weekly. “When you just look at someone on social media, you can’t know what anyone’s going through.”

For them, it not only “felt right” but allowed the pair to be their “authentic selves on this new show.”

Instagram/Olivia Culpo

Olivia Culpo 

Two years before the former Miss Universe and Christian McCaffrey shared they were expecting their first baby, she detailed how her endometriosis diagnosis may lead to future fertility issues. 

“I want to have kids, but I want to make sure that I can,” Culpo, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2020 and subsequently had surgery to treat it, shared in a November 2022 episode of The Culpo Sisters. “It could be really hard for me to have babies.”

“Endometriosis can affect your fertility in a lot of different ways,” she continued. “You can have endometrial tissue growing near or on your ovaries, it can affect the quality of your eggs, scar your fallopian tubes.”

Disney/James Clark

Caelynn Bell 

Bachelor Nation's Caelynn shared a candid message about her and husband Dean Bell’s difficulty conceiving in the years since their 2023 wedding.

“It’s hard,” Caelynn explained in a March 2025 YouTube video. “I’m putting way less pressure on myself than I was in the first few months of trying.”

Although the process has been emotionally challenging, Caelynn is remaining positive as she and her husband get medically tested to “figure out what’s going on.”

Instagram / Julianne Hough

Julianne Hough

The Dancing With the Stars cohost has been open about her struggles with endometriosis, a female reproductive disease, and has been working to preserve her fertility for when she feels ready to try and have a baby.

In June 2025, she shared that she froze her eggs for the third time.

Kristin Callahan/Shutterstock

Whitney Port

Since welcoming Sonny with husband Tim Rosenman in 2017, the Hills alum has been candid about the ups and downs of her fertility journey, including her two pregnancy losses and her surrogate’s two miscarriages.

In July 2024, Whitney confirmed she’s preparing for a second egg retrieval. 

"I'm feeling definitely better than my last round because I know a little bit more what to expect," she shared, "and I just have so much trust and faith in my doctor." 

But no matter what happens in their journey to welcome a second child, Whitney has been clear there is nothing lacking in her family of three. 

"Especially now, as we embark on this fertility journey for number two, I know we are complete no matter what," she wrote as part of a birthday tribute to her son on his 7th birthday in July 2024. "You are a blessing. We love watching you grow and are beyond grateful for how chill you are." 

Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images

Michelle Yeoh

The Everything Everywhere All At Once star—who married Jean Todt in 2023 after a 19-year engagement—once opened up about the challenges she experienced trying to conceive with her first husband, Dickson Poon

"I always wanted to have children," Michelle shared during a podcast appearance in November 2024. "I went and did fertility [treatments] to aid in the process. I think that's the worst moment to go through is every month. You feel like such a failure." 

She continued, "At some point, you stop blaming yourself. There are certain things in your body that don't function in a certain way. That's how it is. You just have to let go and move on."

Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

Eve

The rapper, who shares son Wilde with husband Maximillion Cooper, once detailed a heartbreaking pregnancy loss she experienced due to an ectopic pregnancy while filming her sitcom Eve.

"It was 2006 when I found out that I was pregnant," Eve wrote in her memoir Who's That Girl?. "I had to have emergency surgery and stop filming the show for two weeks. I don't know why I lied to everyone on set and said that my appendix had ruptured, really. Maybe because I was lying to myself."

"If I faced losing my baby, then I didn't know if two weeks would be enough emotional healing time," she continued. "In the end, it was barely enough healing time for me physically, before I was right back to work on set. I had lost so much weight after the surgery, and my body was so frail."

Kayla Oaddams/Getty Images

Mary Bonnet

The Selling Sunset star, who welcomed her son Austin at the age of 15, has been candid about her and husband Romain Bonnet's fertility journey

“We don't know what the outcome is going to be,” she told E! News in September 2024. “We're just kind of taking it as it as it comes. I've been super busy right now with the book and with the season and everything. So, I know nothing's going to happen if I'm stressed out and if I'm running around.”

And in addition to undergoing a surgery to rectify a septate uterus (when the uterus is divided into two parts by a membrane), Mary said she and Romain aren't rushing into any decisions—and are happy with their dog.

“We have our fur baby though, Thor. Romaine is obsessed with him,” added the real estate agent. “So if it doesn't happen, he says he's OK. He’s got his little fur baby, and he is just beyond obsessed. We’ll be OK. What's meant to be will be.”

Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images

Erin Andrews

The NFL sportscaster and her husband Jarret Stoll, who welcomed son Mack in July 2023, have had their own fair share of ups and downs amid their journey to parenthood—including navigating Erin's cervical cancer diagnosis in 2017.

But having frozen her eggs before her cancer battle, she then underwent IVF to help her conceive a child—an experience she decided to share with the world. 

"I just was so tired of keeping quiet," she explained of sharing her struggles in a 2021 essay. "It was such a hard, painful journey. I think I went numb through most of it, because you just feel like a robot and you're on this really unfair roller coaster that more times out of none, you're going to get really bad news." 

She added, "I'm a vocal person, and I could speak from the heart and just talk about how crappy it was and that I get it for a lot of couples and families that are trying to have a child." 

For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App

Read Entire Article