Jennifer Aniston recently set social media abuzz after opening up about her long and often misunderstood journey with motherhood, and why she never wanted to adopt children. During her October 20 appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast, accessed early by People via Wondery+, Aniston reflected on coming to terms with not becoming a mother.The topic surfaced when co-host Monica Padman discussed her own experience with freezing eggs. In response, Aniston shared that she now felt a sense of calm acceptance about her circumstances. She further acknowledged that at some point, the decision was no longer in her control.“But I will say there’s a point where it’s like out of my control. There’s literally nothing I can do about it. When people say, ‘But you can adopt,’ I don’t want to adopt, I want my own DNA in a little person. That’s the only way — selfish or not, whatever that is — I’ve wanted it,” Jennifer Aniston explained.Her candid remarks quickly went viral after Pop Crave shared the news on X (formerly Twitter) on October 14, 2025. The post, quoting Aniston’s comments, was captioned:“Jennifer Aniston explains why she never wanted to adopt children amid infertility struggles.”Pop Crave’s post sparked a wave of mixed reactions online. One user criticized Aniston for her stance, referencing her character from Friends, Rachel. Referencing the storyline where Rachel’s friends Monica and Chandler adopt twins after facing infertility, the user remarked:“Learnt nothing from Monica and Chandler.”财富 @FreeAgen_LINK@PopCrave learnt nothing from monica and chandlerOthers accused the actress of being selfish and out of touch for rejecting adoption.Damon Strong @DamonStrongLINK@PopCrave Despite her multi-millions, she'll be a miserable old lady with no kids.Karan Pandit @Karanpandit64LINK@PopCrave "She said ‘adopt?’ Nah, I want the deluxe biological edition 😭Selena Maris @ItsSelenaMarisLINK@PopCrave Jennifer Aniston calling adoption ‘not for her’ because she only wants her ‘own DNA’ is brutally tone-deaf. Millions of kids need homes, but celebrity empathy apparently stops where genetics begin. Dressing that up as honesty doesn’t make it any less self‑absorbed.However, many X users came to her defense, applauding Aniston for her honesty and for openly expressing her raw emotions without sugarcoating her truth.Eshani Verma @eshaniverma809LINK@PopCrave She just spoke her truth, and it’s refreshing to hear someone be that real about such a personal topicjoelyn Jane @Joelyn45205201LINK@PopCrave Jennifer Aniston is absolutely right having your own blood Baby is a blessing. She wants to be a mother, real mom.🙏Pro6lema @pro6lemaLINK@PopCrave finally someone in hollywood keeping it real instead of pretending to be a saint. there's nothing wrong with knowing exactly what you want and not settling 💜Jennifer Aniston opens up about her Infertility struggles and media misconceptionsJennifer Aniston (Image via Getty Images)Jennifer Aniston recently opened up about her deeply personal journey with infertility in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar U.K., published on October 9, 2025.The Friends alum addressed the long-standing public narratives that painted her as someone who chose career over motherhood, particularly after her 2005 divorce from Brad Pitt. Speaking candidly, Aniston said that the speculation surrounding her private life had been both inaccurate and painful.She revealed that while the public had crafted their own version of her story, few truly knew what she had endured.“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 woe… That’s not anybody’s business,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.Aniston further explained how, over time, the relentless media narrative that she had refused to have children because she was “selfish” or “a workaholic” began to take a toll on her.“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… it does affect me—I’m just a human being. We’re all human beings,” she reflected.The actress also reflected, her 2016 HuffPost essay, where she slammed the media's treatment of women, specifically those women who were “struggling with the same issue,” as her and couldn’t get pregnant.Now 56, Aniston noted that although the media landscape had evolved, the harmful “circle of shame” surrounding women’s fertility had only slowly begun to fade.Additionally, in recent years, Jennifer Aniston has been more open about her experience with in vitro fertilization (IVF). She also revisited this topic during her 2022 Allure cover story, in which she disclosed for the first time that she had spent “many years” hiding her fertility struggles.During the interview with Allure, Aniston revealed she had gone through rounds of IVF and “was trying to get pregnant,”. However, according to the actress, “the baby-making road” was a “challenging road” for her“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. 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,” she explainedThough pregnancy never came, Aniston expressed a sense of peace with where she was, adding that she finally felt free of the lingering uncertainty.Jennifer Aniston is currently busy with season 4 of her Apple TV+’s, The Morning Show.