Actress Jennifer Aniston has opened up about the pressure on women, including herself, to have children.
During a recent interview with Allure magazine, the Friends star revealed that she doesn’t think the expectation surrounding women and motherhood is fair.
“I don’t like (the pressure) that people put on me, on women, that you’ve failed yourself as a female because you haven’t procreated. I don’t think it’s fair,” she explained.
“You may not have a child come out of your vagina, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t mothering – dogs, friends, friends’ children.”
Jennifer with her fiancé Justin.
Jen, who is engaged to Justin Theroux, added that she finds the assumption that she has put her career before starting a family particularly hurtful.
“The accusation that I’ve put my career before the want, the desire to be a mother. This continually is said about me, that I was so career-driven and focused on myself, that I don’t want to be a mother and how selfish that is… Even saying it gets me a little tight in my throat.”
She continued: “I have a lot of friends who decided not to have children, who can’t have children, or are trying but are having a difficult time.
“There’s all sorts of reasons why children aren’t in people’s lives, and no one has the right to assume. It’s quite rude, insulting and ignorant.”
The actress in Allure magazine.
