Hollywood — Jennifer Aniston went through a tough time in 2004. That year she went through some ups and downs. She left the show that made her a star while expressing her desire to settle down and start a family.
Unfortunately, she also went through the breakdown of her marriage to Brad Pitt. Aniston shared with Rolling Stone in a 2001 interview that she met Pitt back in 1994, the same year that Friends premiered on NBC.
Their managers were friends and Aniston recalled Pitt as a “sweet guy from Missouri”, a Showbiz Cheat Sheet report said on Jan 19. A couple of years later, Aniston and Pitt’s managers set them up on a date, after Aniston and Tate Donovan broke up and Pitt split up with Gwyneth Paltrow. Aniston and Pitt dated secretly for months before appearing publicly on the red carpet at the Emmys in 1999. The couple got engaged after five months of dating.
Aniston and Pitt got married on July 29, 2000, in a lavish wedding ceremony in Malibu. Aniston was stoked about finding the man she believed she would spend the rest of her life with. The actress said that if there was ever an argument, it’s not like you can go, “Screw you, I’m outta here.” She said that it is for the long haul and that it is a beautiful thing to actually realised it for the first time. Aniston added that it takes the heat and weight out of things.
At that point of time, Pitt was still one of the biggest movie stars in the world and Aniston was America’s sweetheart as part of the Friends ensemble cast. The Brad and Jen mania was in full effect and Pitt made a guest appearance on the hit sitcom. He appeared on the season 8 episode “The One with the Rumour” where he wore a sweater and had frosted tips showing up for Thanksgiving.
Pitt’s character knew Rachel Green (Aniston’s character) in high school and he loathed her. It was an entertaining episode and a major moment for fans of Brad and Jen. Aniston spoke to The Guardian two years later about her plans for her life after Friends ended. It was weeks leading to the show’s finale and Aniston and Pitt had finished renovating their USD14 million (SGD18 million), six-bedroom mansion.
Aniston shared that she loved her house as it was very symbolic to her, being two years in the making and redoing of it.
“Something about creating a foundation with someone. It is a fascinating process and I really do believe it’s such a test to a relationship that it’s the same thing as the stories you hear about having babies. It is hard doing a house together. And if you make it through that, man, you can make it through anything.”
In the interview with The Guardian, Aniston shared that she was ready to have a baby with Pitt. She said that it was time and that she was looking forward to slowing down.
The actress then pondered her baby timetable and said, “he’ll be finishing [Mr and Mrs Smith] at the end of February. Then he starts Ocean’s Twelve. So I, thankfully, will be able to go and travel with him while he’s doing that.”
According to Marie Claire, the final episode of Friends aired in May 2004, the same month that Pitt met Angelina Jolie on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Seven months later – when Aniston thought she would be travelling with her husband and trying for a baby – Aniston and Pitt announced their split.
The couple denied the tabloid rumours at the time that claimed that the breakup was due to his affair with Jolie. However, Jolie did admit later that sparks flew between her and Pitt on the set of their first movie together.
Aniston later told Vanity Fair that she was still confused by what happened. However, she refused to play the victim.
She said that living in a victim place is point a finger at someone else, as if you have no control and that relationships are two people, with everyone accountable. A lot goes into a relationship coming together, and a lot goes into a relationship falling apart. /TISG