Jennifer Aniston on going through 'dark s--t' in front of the world, how past pregnancy rumors were ‘nasty'

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Jennifer Aniston opened up about going through "dark s--t" in front of the whole world during a recent interview.

Aniston, 52, admitted her "expectations" for her personal life "shape-shifted" seemingly "overnight" after she finished filming for "Friends." 

"The career was one thing. I didn't know what was coming, and that's been nothing but blessed. ... It was more personal stuff that I had expectations about that sort of shape-shifted, so to speak," Aniston said during an interview for The Hollywood Reporter's most recent cover story. 

"That was what was jarring, that we all had an idea of what the future was going to be, and we were going to go hunker down and focus on this or that, and then it all just changed overnight, and that was it."

"But again, everything's a blessing if you're able to look at life's ups and downs in that way," she added. "And if it all hadn't happened, I would not be sitting here, the woman that I am."

Jennifer Aniston opened up about how her ‘expectations’ for her personal life shifted ‘overnight’ after she stopped filming 'Friends.' (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images for Turner)

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When asked how she managed to hold herself together instead of having a public breakdown, she referenced her late mother, according to THR.

"I also grew up watching someone sit comfortably in victimhood, and I didn't like how it looked," Aniston said. "I knew that this person was giving me an example of what I'd never want to be, and I will never ever be that"

"I think it's toxic, and it erodes your insides and your soul. And listen, is it a sliver of an annoyance to have to publicly go through dark s--t in front of the world? Yes, it's an inconvenience, but it's all relative."

Aniston was previously married to actor Brad Pitt from 2000-2005. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Aniston said she made a choice to "thrive."

"So I had a choice to make: Either I'm going to surrender into bonbons and living under my covers, or I'm going to go out there and find a creative outlet and thrive, and that's what I did," Aniston said.

"It just happened to be with a movie called ‘The Break-Up,’" she continued.

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Aniston filmed "The Break-Up" in 2006, just one year after her marriage to Brad Pitt ended. The couple was married from 2000 to 2005. Pitt quickly moved on with actress Angelina Jolie, whom he met on the set of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." Pitt and Jolie denied ever getting together while Pitt was still married to Aniston.

Aniston also opened up about how the attention people paid to her private life affected her professional life.

"Well, 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,’" Aniston said. "So, you disappear as much as you can, you have fun, you take on these weird roles, you don’t give a s--t, 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."

Aniston also characterized the scrutiny over her lack of children as ‘really hurtful’ and ‘nasty’ during a recent interview. (Getty Images)

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Aniston said she used to take things "very personally" and characterized the attention on her lack of children "really hurtful" and "nasty."

"I used to take it all very personally — the pregnancy rumors and the whole ‘Oh, she chose career over kids’ assumption," she said. "It’s like, ‘You have no clue what’s going on 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."