The Tragic Story Of Jennifer Aniston's Life

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This article contains references to addiction and mental health issues.

Even as one of the most notable actors in the world, Jennifer Aniston has endured her fair share of tragedies. From familial struggles impacting her love life to finding ways to handle personal diagnoses, the "Friends" star has weathered many storms. Specifically in the public eye, she has faced safety concerns and deep loss as the Hollywood spotlight continues to shine on her after multiple decades in the industry.

But despite the issues that she has worked through, Aniston has worked to maintain a positive outlook on life, focusing on health, and has found family to be a pillar of a happy life and career. "There's no point in living to be 90 when you're not thriving," she once shared with Interview. "If your body starts to break down then your mind breaks down, and your consciousness breaks down, and then you're of no use to the world." While it seems that she has been working to heal, Jennifer Aniston has been through quite a lot.

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Growing up, Jennifer Aniston didn't always have the most glamorous life despite her parents both being entertainers. Her father, the late actor John Aniston, even discouraged his daughter from pursuing the same career path and instead pushed her to enter law school. "That was my one rebellion," she shared with Collider. "I was hoping that I was going to make it, so that I could prove him wrong."

Despite the challenges of becoming a woman in what she referred to as an "unsafe" environment, Aniston's youth helped her shape the way she viewed her future. "[I grew] up in a household that was destabilized and felt unsafe," she shared in an interview with Sandra Bullock for Interview. "[I watched] adults being unkind to each other, and witness[ed] certain things about human behavior that made me think: 'I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that.'"

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Jennifer Aniston is known for her many comedic roles, but she's also dealt with dramatic stories. While filming the movie "Cake," a scene that was meant to be therapeutic for her painkiller-addicted character actually dredged up her own phobia in real life. The character took to a pool for some water therapy, but Aniston's fear of deep water caused production to be delayed. "I can't go under water and no one believed me," she shared with Woman's Day (via Now to Love). "I'm like, 'I honestly can't.' Just to get the one shot of me going under [water] with the weight, I think we did that 30 times." The hard work paid off, though, as the actor earned a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a drama motion picture.

The fear stems from a traumatic childhood incident in which a young Aniston crashed into a swimming pool while riding her tricycle and had difficulty getting out, even with her brother trying to help her. Aniston has tried to steer clear of big bodies of water ever since whenever she can help it. But by filming such an emotionally triggering scene, she was able to tap into the character even more. "This was a real physical challenge and an emotional challenge," she affirmed to the outlet.

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When it comes to her mother, Jennifer Aniston's relationship with the family matriarch was strained at best. Aniston's mother, Nancy Dow, a fellow actor and model, spent much of her daughter's childhood criticizing her looks. "It wasn't her trying to be a b**** or knowing she would be making some deep wounds that I would then spend a lot of money to undo ... She did it because that was what she grew up with," Aniston said of her mother to Elle. "She was missing what was [actually] important. I think she was just holding on and doing the best she could." Despite the tension between the two, Dow wrote a revealing tell-all book that described the pair's fraught relationship, eventually causing the two to become estranged for at least a decade. However, the two did reconcile a year before Dow's death in 2016.

But even though the distance between the two kept them apart more than together, Aniston has admitted that she did pick up some positive things from her mother. "I love entertaining," she revealed to Elle. "I always have food. I think I probably got that from my mom, who always had her girlfriends over. I picked it up from my childhood — just always hearing girls in the house and learning how to make a good cheese board."

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It wasn't just her mother that Jennifer Aniston lost. The actor's father, John Aniston, was an in-and-out presence in the star's life after separating from her mother and walking out on their family in 1980. "I just remember sitting there, crying, not understanding that he was gone," Aniston recalled of her childhood (per the Daily Mail). "I don't remember anything other than it being odd that all of a sudden my father wasn't there. And he was gone for a while, about a year." The Aniston patriarch did come back into his daughter's life as suddenly as he left it, setting in motion a "new way of life unfolded" for the two.

Later in life, the "Days of Our Lives" actor did apologize to his daughter, and the pair healed their relationship as best as they could throughout the years. Jennifer connected daily with her father during the COVID-19 pandemic, something that helped soothe their relationship even more towards the end of his life. John Aniston passed away in 2022, and his daughter paid tribute to him. "You were one of the most beautiful humans I ever knew," she wrote in a touching Instagram post. "I'll love you till [sic] the end of time."

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Jennifer Aniston's love life is arguably as famous as her role on "Friends," but the tumultuous nature of her romantic escapades was negatively influenced by her parents' troubled marriage. After her father left her mother in the early 1980s, the young Aniston saw firsthand the issues that stemmed from separation. "It was always a little bit difficult for me in relationships, I think, because I really was kind of alone," she shared with The Wall Street Journal. "My parents, watching my family's relationship, didn't make me kind of go, 'Oh, I can't wait to do that,'" she said.

While she has had her fair share of love, it hasn't lasted long. Aniston's own marriages to actors Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux, respectively, both ended in divorce, with the former being one of the most covered break-ups in recent history. But despite the heartbreak, Aniston has been able to reflect on herself while exploring singledom. She has embraced putting her own needs first, even when it's still a challenge.

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Even as her career was skyrocketing in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, Jennifer Aniston struggled with creating a family of her own. The actor longed to start a family of her own and was undergoing IVF treatments while also pursuing more holistic habits, anything to help increase her chances of success. "I was throwing everything at it," she revealed to Allure. "I would've given anything if someone had said to me, 'Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.' You just don't think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed." The process did not prove successful, but through reflection, Aniston was able to find the silver lining. "I have zero regrets. 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."

To make matters worse, the media followed the actor's every move, speculating whether or not she was sporting a baby bump at every turn. The star admitted that it was challenging for her to face both the maddening media attention while suffering silently in real life. "I'm not superhuman to the point where I can't let it penetrate and hurt," she admitted to the outlet.

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Even the most famous performers in the world have their own real-world struggles. Jennifer Aniston suffers from dyslexia, which has directly impacted her life in a number of ways. She found out about her diagnosis thanks to a routine eye exam while in her 20s, which finally provided an explanation for something she had struggled with for years. "I thought I wasn't smart," she revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. "I just couldn't retain anything."

She also detailed that her undiagnosed condition allowed her to find a silver lining in her life. In school, when she was having issues with reading, it helped her develop her sense of humor to stave off bullies and naysayers. She's continued to live with dyslexia, which affects more than just her reading skills, but has been able to find solace in finally having answers. She's even been able to write her own children's book, "Clyde Takes a Bite Out of Life," which is part of a series of novels the multi-hyphenate star plans to publish.

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Jennifer Aniston, like many others, battles with mental health issues stemming from "toxicity" that has impacted her life. The actor has dealt with anger and depression for years, but during quarantine, she was able to take the time she needed to redirect her anger and process things in a healthy way. "My level of anxiety has gone down by eliminating the unnecessary sort of fat in life that I had thought was necessary," she shared with InStyle. "Also realizing that you can't please everybody. And what good does that do if you're just little bits of yourself? Let's try to be the full all of who we are so we can come to the table."

She also maintains that her inner circle helps keep her grounded and in touch with the positives in life. The lifelong friends that she's made have been crucial in maintaining balance, and they feed off of each other to help encourage growth and positivity. "There's nothing wrong with needing support," she once affirmed (per The News International). "We're all human, and we all have our ups and downs."

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Jennifer Aniston is not immune to some of the scary side effects of Hollywood fame. She has been the victim of a stalker situation, which resulted in filing a restraining order. While she has never talked publicly about the ordeal, it was reported in 2010 that a man was arrested after being found waiting for Aniston with a bag of sharp objects, tape, and handwritten love notes, according to a notice from her lawyer (per TMZ). The man also had a history of violence and was known for exhibiting that violence on others. He even drove across the country to follow her and slept in his car, on which he wrote a message proclaiming his love for the actor.

Aniston has been known to comment about the side effects of fame, which has sometimes drawn backlash. Yet, she maintains that as long as she remains true to herself, she is able to sidestep most of the negative impacts that could present themselves. "It's just self-preservation," she shared with Elle. "Look, we're all human at the end of the day. I'm really still working on it. That's just my own PTSD ... It's a matter of choosing when I feel like I'm okay with having a bunch of people take a bunch of pictures of me."

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Along with facing the media, Jennifer Aniston has faced years of Hollywood sexism and invasive photographers following her every move. It's something that she has addressed in numerous interviews over the years and has even made public in her own words. "If I am some kind of symbol to some people out there, then clearly I am an example of the lens through which we, as a society, view our mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, female friends and colleagues," she wrote in a 2016 op-ed for HuffPost. "The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing."

As for photographers and tabloids, it has impacted not only her daily life for multiple decades but also those of her loved ones. There are countless candid photos from restaurants, private events, and even around her own home that have invaded her privacy throughout her time in the spotlight. But the star has learned ways to battle the stigma that these overarching forums present. "From years of experience, I've learned tabloid practices, however dangerous, will not change, at least not any time soon," she continued in her op-ed. "What can change is our awareness and reaction to the toxic messages buried within these seemingly harmless stories served up as truth and shaping our ideas of who we are."

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In 2023, Jennifer Aniston (and the world) lost Matthew Perry, Aniston's "Friends" co-star and beloved friend of many years. Upon meeting in the early 1990s, the two became close friends from the start. Perry even admitted in his 2022 memoir that he once had a crush on his co-star, though she turned him down when he asked her on a date. "I was immediately taken by her (how could I not be?) and I liked her, and I got the sense she was intrigued too — maybe it was going to be something," he wrote.

Perry passed away in October 2023 from an accidental drug overdose, a case which eventually morphed into murder charges in 2024. "We loved him deeply," she wrote in a touching tribute on Instagram. "He was such a part of our DNA ... He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard ... Matty, I love you so much and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain. I talk to you every day ... sometimes I can almost hear you saying 'could you BE any crazier?'"

If you or anyone you know needs help with mental health or substance abuse, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

• The Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.