“People say, ‘But you can adopt.’ I don’t want to.”

Jennifer Aniston has revealed why she never adopted kids, despite long-standing public preoccupation with her fertility.

“When people say, ‘But you can adopt,’ I don’t want to adopt,” Aniston said during a Wondery+ Early Access episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, according to People. “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 says she never wanted to adopt following 20-year battle to have a baby: 'I want my own DNA' | Daily Mail Online

During the podcast, scheduled to air on October 20, Aniston explained that she’s met certain men who “would have made some good kids,” though she said she hasn’t dwelled on it, instead allowing the observation to “pass within three seconds.”

Aniston later added that having children “just wasn’t in the plan, whatever the plan was.”

For decades, the “Morning Show” star was the target of media speculation over whether she would be a mother. Aniston was married to Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005 and then to Justin Theroux from 2015 until they announced their separation in 2018.

In 2016, Aniston addressed the obsession in an op-ed for Huffington Post.

“For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up,” Aniston wrote. “I’m fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of ‘journalism,’ the ‘First Amendment’ and ‘celebrity news.’”

Aniston continued: “We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.”

Explaining that she was tired of the exploitation, Jennifer wrote, “Yes, I may become a mother someday, and since I’m laying it all out there, if I ever do, I will be the first to let you know. But I’m not in pursuit of motherhood because I feel incomplete in some way, as our celebrity news culture would lead us all to believe.”

Jennifer Aniston explains 'selfish' reason why she never adopted children despite fertility struggles

In 2022, Aniston told Allure that in earlier years, she did IVF to have a baby.

“I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” Aniston told the outlet.

Aniston added: “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.”

In an October 2025 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Aniston circled back to her Huffington Post essay.

“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 woes,” Aniston told Harper’s Bazaar.

Aniston continued, “That’s not anybody’s business. But 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. That’s why I thought, ‘What the hell?’”