Hollywood actor Jennifer Aniston has shared a fresh perspective on marriage and associating one's marital status with his/her career.
In an interview to Elle magazine, Aniston opined that focusing endlessly on one's relationship status diminishes the success he/she has achieved in life, adding that all her marriages were "successful."
Dismissing reports of a void post her divorce from Justin Theroux, the 49-year-old said: "My marriages, they've been very successful, in [my] personal opinion. And when they came to an end, it was a choice that was made because we chose to be happy, and sometimes happiness didn't exist within that arrangement anymore."
Acknowledging the ups and downs associated with wedlock, the 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S' star elaborated: "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 cliche's around all of this that need to be reworked and retooled, you know? Because it's very narrow-minded thinking. It's such a shallow lens that people look through. It's the only place to point a finger at me as though it's my damage-like it's some sort of a scarlet letter on me that I haven't yet procreated, or maybe won't ever procreate," she opined.
While Aniston says she understands the idea of a happy ending, she feels that it is a "very storybook idea."
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"The idea of a happy ending is a very romantic idea. I understand it, and I think for some people it does work. And it's powerful and it's incredible and it's admirable. Even enviable. But everybody's path is different," she added.
Recalling her ambitions as a teen, television's Rachel Green said finding a partner or choosing the perfect wedding day outfit was never her priority.
"My priorities weren't about finding partnership and who am I gonna marry and what am I gonna wear on my wedding day. I was building houses with shoe boxes and toilet paper and felt. It was always about finding a home that felt safe. And I'm sure, because I was from a divorced-parent home, that was another reason I wasn't like, 'Well, that looks like a great institution.'" she said in her interview with the popular magazine.
Aniston and Theroux began dating in May of 2011 and got engaged in August 2012, followed by a wedding on August 5, 2015, at their home in Bel-Air.
The ex-Hollywood couple called it quits in February this year.
Prior to her association with Theroux, Aniston was married to actor Brad Pitt for five years.