In news that could not be less optimal for the week of Valentine’s Day, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux surprised their fans with a joint letter announcing that they have been separated since late last year.
The news came just a week after Architectural Digest offered a tour of the couple’s home and one day after V-Day, which raised a few eyebrows. Their split had fans reeling at first, and though sources say Aniston is taking the breakup in stride, people on Twitter want a reconciliation … but not between her and Theroux.
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Twitter seems to have a few theories that involve Aniston reuniting with her ex-husband Brad Pitt, since he is also single after separating from Angelina Jolie.
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But lowdown about a Jen-Brad reunion plot gets more complicated than the fairytale it seems to be on the surface.
Their history is hardly an easy one. They initially married in 2000, and after almost five years of marriage, they divorced, but it was not as simple and clean as that. Pitt filmed the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which co-starred Jolie, in 2004. While they both denied reports of on-set romance, they later admitted that they did fall in love on set—at the same time that Pitt was married to Aniston.
In early 2005, Aniston and Pitt announced their divorce, and by July 2005, Pitt and Jolie were photographed for a magazine cover shoot that depicted them as parents with a family of kids. Pitt’s divorce to Aniston was finalized that fall.
All of this turns the social media theory into a particularly dramatic notion that doesn’t really respect the wishes of Aniston in the first place. In their joint separation letter, Aniston and Theroux made it clear that each of them wanted to avoid fictionalized stories about their own lives.
“Normally we would do this privately, but given that the gossip industry cannot resist an opportunity to speculate and invent, we wanted to convey the truth directly,” said a statement released by Aniston’s longtime publicist Stephen Huvane. “Whatever else is printed about us that is not directly from us, is someone else’s fictional narrative. Above all, we are determined to maintain the deep respect and love that we have for one another.”
Let’s take a moment to re-read that: “The gossip industry cannot resist an opportunity to speculate and invent … Whatever else is printed about us that is not directly from us, is someone else’s fictional narrative.”
Jumping from separation news into speculation, invention, and newfound fictional narratives seems to fully ignore the meaning of their words entirely.
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Admittedly, a reconciliation between Aniston and Pitt would without a doubt be one of the biggest Hollywood real-life twists of all time, but things also didn’t work out so well the first time for the former husband and wife. And according to People, (albeit in what Aniston may consider “someone else’s fictional narrative”) the pair aren’t close.
“They haven’t seen each other in ages,” a source told People. “For well over a decade now they have lived totally separate lives and so not surprisingly, they have become totally different people than who they once were when they were together.”
For the time being, she’s firmly focused on her life and her friends, and that deserves to be respected instead of being met with waves of fabricated narratives.
“Jen has continued her life as usual,” a source told People. “She has seemed fine. There has been no indication that she is upset.”
Even things between her and Theroux aren’t really that bad, all things considered.
“She and Justin started out as friends, and always admired each other a lot,” said the source. “It seems they will continue to be friends.”
It sounds like it’s time for Twitter to take the cue from Aniston, take a breath, and move on.