Jennifer Anistonturned an important page on her life in 2005.
On Thursday’sseries finaleofThe Ellen DeGeneres Show, the actress told palEllen DeGeneresabout the pivotal year she had afterFriendsfinished its 10-season run around the same time as her marriage toBrad Pittwasending.
“Well, I got a divorce and went into therapy,” Aniston, 53, said while sitting down with DeGeneres, 64, forone of the long-running talk show host’s final interviews.
“And then I did a movie calledThe Break-Up,” Aniston continued. “I just kinda leaned into the end. I just was like, ‘You know what, guys? Let’s make this a completely new chapter. Let’s just end everything and start new.’ It worked great.”
Kevin Winter/Getty
Aniston and Pitt, now 58, announced their separation in January 2005 after more than four years of marriage, then finalized their divorce that October.
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Seventeen years later, the pair haverekindled their friendshipand Aniston considers the actor one of her"buddies."
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston at the 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards.Emma McIntyre/Getty
Aniston toldELLEin January 2019: “My marriages [to Brad andJustin Theroux], they’ve beenvery successful, in [my] personal opinion.”
Ahe continued, “And when they came to an end, it was a choice that was made because we chose to be happy, and sometimes happiness doesn’t exist within that arrangement anymore.”
Aniston acknowledged, “Sure, there were bumps, and not every moment felt fantastic, obviously, but at the end of it, this is our one life and I would not stay in a situation out of fear. Fear of being alone. Fear of not being able to survive. To stay in a marriage based on fear feels like you’re doing your one life a disservice,. When the work has been put in and it doesn’t seem that there’s an option of it working, that’s okay. That’s not a failure. We have these clichés around all of this that need to be reworked and retooled, you know? Because it’s very narrow-minded thinking.”
As for Aniston’sFriendsfriends, they’veremained closein the 18 years since the series finale.
They even reconvened for aMay 2021 reunion specialon HBO Max.
Friendsreunion.Terrence Patrick/HBO Max
“I was flooded with 10 years of irreplaceable memories,“Courteney Coxtold PEOPLE at the time about how she felt stepping back onto the iconic Central Perk set.
SharedMatt LeBlanc, “It’s funny, when we do get together, it’s like no time has passed. We pick up right where we left off.”
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A source told PEOPLE in 2019 that the former costars"have really leaned on each other"in the years since the NBC megahit took its final bow.
A show source added that even when Aniston and her pals were separated, “They follow each other’s lives. The fact that they have been there for each other in happy and in sad times says a lot.”
source: people.com
