Jennifer Aniston no longer takes 'hurtful' pregnancy rumours personally

LOS ANGELES - Friends star Jennifer Aniston used to be bothered by "hurtful" pregnancy rumours, but not anymore.

The 52-year-old opened up to entertainment portal The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday (Dec 8) about the media's intrusion into her personal life and how she learnt to tune it out.

"I used to take it all very personally - the pregnancy rumours and the whole 'Oh, she chose career over kids' assumption", said Aniston, who was under intense scrutiny when she was on hit series Friends from 1994 to 2004. She was married to actor Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005.

"It's like, 'You have no clue what's going with me personally, medically, why I can't … can I have kids?' They don't know anything, and it was really hurtful and just nasty."

The Morning Show actress, who wrapped up filming on the latest season of the series last month (Nov), added: "What the tabloids and the media did to people's personal lives back then, regular people are doing now (on social media). Although I haven't seen a tabloid in so long. Am I still having twins? Am I going to be the miracle mother at 52?"

"Now you've got social media. It's almost like the media handed over the sword to any Joe Schmo sitting behind a computer screen to be a troll or whatever they call them and bully people in comment sections.

"So it's just sort of changed hands in a way. And I don't know why there's such a cruel streak in society. I often wonder what they get off on."

As for how she coped with being in the public eye, she said: "People certainly project onto you and all that, but my job is to go, 'Listen, I'll show you what I'm capable of, and you decide if you want to subscribe'.

"So you disappear as much as you can, you have fun, you take on these weird roles, you don't give a s***, you enjoy yourself, you remember that you have a gorgeous group of friends and your life is blessed and you do the best that you can."