Jennifer Aniston has entered the 2024 election news cycle to criticize former President Trump’s running mate, “Hillbilly Elegy” author and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, for his comments about people who haven’t had children.
The Emmy-winning “Friends” star on Wednesday shared her disbelief over a resurfaced video featuring the Republican vice presidential nominee, who in 2021 compared Democrats like Vice President Kamala Harris to “childless cat ladies who are miserable with their own lives and the choices they’ve made.” Vance said, “They want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Tweeting about the clip on her Instagram Story, the actress wrote: “I really can't believe this is coming from a potential Vice President of the United States.”
“The Morning Show” star, who opened up about her infertility struggles in 2022, then directed her comments at Vance himself while alluding to the GOP’s support for personhood laws that would affect access to abortion, in vitro fertilization procedures and certain types of contraception.
“All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is lucky enough to have children of her own someday,” she wrote. “I hope she doesn’t have to resort to IVF as a second option, because you are trying to take that away from her as well.”
A representative for Aniston had no further comment when contacted by The Times.
The 39-year-old Ohio senator was a candidate for Congress when he made the remarks in 2021 on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's show, but the clip has been circulating on social media recently in the wake of Trump choosing his former critic as his vice presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention last week.
“It’s a basic fact: If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And what’s the point that we’ve handed our country over to people who really have no vested interest in it?” Vance told Carlson.
After criticizing Vance, Aniston, 55, appeared to endorse Harris, who joined the race on Sunday after President Biden heeded widespread calls to drop out of the election. She reposted a 2018 video by actress Allison Janney showing the former prosecutor and senator questioning then-Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh about abortion rights.
In a 2022 interview, Aniston gave a rare glimpse into her attempts at parenthood and how the media scrutinized her for not having children during her high-profile marriages to Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux.
“I was trying to get pregnant. The journey of having a baby was challenging for me,” she told Allure. “All the years and years and years of speculation… It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, everything. I was giving it everything I had. I would have given anything if someone had said, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.’ You just don’t think about it. So here I am today. The ship has already sailed.”
Aniston said the media painfully labeled her as “selfish” and someone who “only cared about her career.”
“God forbid a woman be successful and not have children,” she said. “And the reason my husband left me, the reason we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I didn’t want to give him a child. It was absolute lies.”
Meanwhile, Harris' stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, and Ella's mother, Kerstin Emhoff, came to Harris' defense.
On Thursday, Ella Emhoff posted on her Instagram story a statement her mother had given to CNN. In it, Kerstin Emhoff called the “childlessness” allegations against Harris “baseless” and praised her as a “co-parent” to her two children with second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
“She is loving, caring and nurturing and always present,” the statement said.
Ella Emhoff added: “How can you not have kids when you have such cute kids like Cole and I? @kemhoff say it louder for the people in the back… I love all three of my parents.”
