Originally appeared on E! Online
The one where Jennifer Aniston takes on the tabloids.
It’s been 20 years since the “Friends” alum announced her separation from then-husband Brad Pitt — amid rumblings that the actor had sparked a romance with his “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” costar Angelina Jolie — but Aniston still remembers that “love triangle” era all too well.
“It was such juicy reading for people,” the “Morning Show” actress told Vanity Fair in an interview published August 11. “If they didn’t have their soap operas, they had their tabloids.”
“It’s a shame that it had to happen, but it happened,” she added. “And boy did I take it personally.”
As for her mindset at the time? “Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps,” she explained, “and keep on walking, girl.”
Brad Pitt is reflecting on his journey in Alcoholics Anonymous. The Oscar winner was the latest guest on “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard” and looked back at his first meeting, admitting it helped him through a difficult time.
The same year that Aniston, 56, and Pitt, 61, called it quits, he officially moved on with Jolie, 50, and the new couple even posed for pictures together in a spread for W magazine, titled “Domestic Bliss,” depicting them as married with kids. (Pitt and Jolie later married in 2014 before she filed for divorce two years later, leading to a decade-long legal battle.)
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After Pitt and Jolie’s 2005 photoshoot was released, Aniston told Vanity Fair shortly after, “There’s a sensitivity chip that’s missing.”
And although Aniston hasn’t looked back at her interview with the outlet in a while, she can still recall her emotions at the time.
“I just remember the experience of doing it — which was kind of jarring,” she told VF in her new interview. “It was also such a vulnerable time. But yeah, that was one for the memoirs.”
PHOTOSBrad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, 2004
