JENNIFER ANISTON What really went wrong with Justin Theroux.
After 7 years together and 2 years of marriage, they’re calling it quits. inside the differences they couldn’t overcome—and how she’s trying to move on
hen Jennifer Aniston celebrated her 49th birthday over lunch at a private Malibu home with eight of her closest girlfriends— including Courteney Cox and longtime yoga instructor Mandy Ingber—she was hoping the rest of the world wouldn’t find out that her husband Justin Theroux was 4,300km away in New York. In fact, a source says she was hoping he would lie low that weekend so as not to raise any uncomfortable questions. “But that’s not Justin’s style,” says an insider of the Leftovers actor, 46, who was instead photographed in the days around her Feb. 11 birthday at a fashion show, walking his dog and taking a boxing class at Gotham Gym. “He just wanted to make the announcement so he can live his life.”
That announcement—that the pair were breaking up after seven years as a couple and two and a half years of marriage—was inevitable. On Valentine’s Day, Theroux jetted by private plane from New York to L.A. for a late-night meeting with his wife, and the pair agreed that they would tell the world it was over. “This decision to separate was mutual and lovingly made at the end of last year,” they said in a joint statement the next
day. “We are two best friends who have decided to part ways as a couple, but look forward to continuing our cherished friendship.”
The news came as a shock to fans, who hoped the former Friends star had found her happily ever after with the motorcycle-riding actor-screenwriter following her 2005 divorce from Brad Pitt and romances with men including Vince Vaughn and John
“She just really liked him. He made her feel safe and comfortable” —an Aniston source
Mayer. Just a week before, Aniston had shown off the couple’s $US21 million LA estate in Architectural Digest, saying, “I look around at my husband and my dogs and our home, and there’s nowhere else I want to be.” But behind the scenes, they spent more and more time apart as clashing lifestyles and personalities doomed their marriage. Aniston “was still hoping that they could work things out,” says a source close to her, though the final decision to split was a joint one. “For many months, they tried to make it work. They even had therapy. She feels sad and disappointed. She didn’t expect to be single again.”
One major issue: whether to spend their time in New York or L.A. The Manhattanraised Aniston adopted California as her new home in the 1990s, where she used her Friends fortune to settle into a luxurious, relaxed lifestyle with a tight group of friends, insulated from the hassles of fame by a phalanx of bodyguards and drivers. Washington, D.C. native Theroux had called downtown New York City home for nearly three decades, with his own circle of bohemian friends. “They didn’t split because they stopped loving each other,” says the Aniston source. “The split came because they couldn’t find common ground that made them both happy. It became exhausting and frustrating. But they have had this issue almost from the beginning of their relationship. It was always a cause of conflicts.” A Hollywood insider adds, “He is a New York person, and that didn’t change [after they met].” Meanwhile, their careers kept them apart for long stretches of outtime. “The relationship has always involved long separations, especially for their work demands,” adds the insider.
But in the beginning, their
attraction to each other was so strong that the gulf didn’t seem to matter much. They first met on the set of 2008’s Tropic Thunder— which Theroux co-wrote—and became friends (Theroux was then in a long-term relationship with stylist Heidi Bivens). When they reconnected as costars on the set of 2012’s Wanderlust, they could no longer deny an attraction. “From the beginning they had amazing chemistry,” the source says. Theroux broke up with Bivens, and soon he and Aniston were spotted on dinner dates around L.A., eventually taking their romance public on red carpets. “They were always affectionate, loving and deeply respectful of each other,” says a film source close to them. “They were genuinely happier together than were they were apart.” Aniston called Theroux a “protector” and “just a good human being.” Asked to name the best thing to happen in her 40s, she told People in 2015: “Justin is the best thing this decade.”
A year into dating, Theroux proposed to Aniston over dinner at the Manhattan restaurant Blue Hill. Overjoyed and in love, the couple hoped to start a family together. “When Jen met Justin, she had almost given up on the idea that she would have kids,” the source says. “They wanted to have a baby but it didn’t work out.” The source adds that though they were disappointed, it wasn’t something that devastated them. “She has been sad that it never happened, but it never consumed her.” At the start, Aniston tried to adapt to Theroux’s New York world, buying two adjoining apartments in the West Village. But she just couldn’t find happiness there. She hated the swarm of paparazzi that followed them everywhere, and all of her friends were back in L.A. “New York made her miserable,” says the source close to her. “She likes to live a private life and not be photographed every day. Even after all these years, she isn’t comfortable being a celebrity. She disliked New York because she couldn’t hide, and she’d have a lot of anxiety about it. She could never do anything spontaneous.”
Aniston’s high-maintenance lifestyle also wore on the Zoolander 2 screenwriter, who, despite his increasing fame, could usually be found biking around downtown New York to hang at local café The Smile with hipster friends like tattoo artist Scott Campbell and Smile owner Carlos Quirarte. “Although he’s annoyed with the paparazzi, he still goes on with his life,” the Aniston source says. “He loves being out and about. He wanted their lives to be more spontaneous and simple, but that’s not possible with Jen.” Theroux became especially frustrated at his friend Scott Campbell’s wedding to actress Lake Bell in 2013, when Aniston skipped the rehearsal dinner and only flew in by private plane a few hours before the ceremony, surrounded by bodyguards. “In L.A., they would sometimes stay inside at their house for days together,” the source says. “Jen has created this bubble there that she loves, but Justin was never a fan. You could tell he was itching to get out. Many times he would take his motorcycle to a nearby hotel to work so he could get a change of scenery.” The Hollywood insider adds that sometimes they seemed to get along better apart then they did together. “Once they tried spending large chunks of time together, the differences got in the way,” the insider says. “He can be introspective and wants to be left alone to do his writing, and she can get in a down mood if she doesn’t feel in control of her situation.”
Still, they married on August 5, 2015, inviting friends to their Bel Air house for what surprised guests thought was a 44th birthday party for Theroux. Getting married “never seemed that important to them,” says the Aniston source. “When they finally did start to plan it seriously, it was more like, ‘Let’s have a great party with all of our friends and go on a fun trip.” That they did, heading to Bora Bora for their honeymoon with a troupe of friends, including Cox, Jason Bateman and his wife Amanda Anka, Jimmy Kimmel and his wife Molly Mcnearney and daughter Jane. But the same tensions continued after they returned. “Nothing really changed,” says the Aniston source. “One wonders why they got married in the first place.” Adds a film-world source: “They didn’t really fight. They just did things separately.”
As of a few months ago, there were few
—a Hollywood source
outward signs that a divorce was imminent. The two spent Thanksgiving together, sent out a Christmas card to friends and jetted to Cabo San Lucas to ring in the New Year with Bateman and Anka. A source says, “They seemed to have an amazing time. There was nothing that indicated that they weren’t happy together.”
“They are two very different people who had an attraction and respect for each other in the beginning’” —a Hollywood insider
But afterward, Theroux headed back to New York. When he was solo, says the Aniston source, he always “acted more like a single guy. He went out with his single friends and sometimes would have very little contact with Jen for days.” While “it seems Justin gave up many months ago,” the source says, Aniston only “very recently started telling friends that they were over.” While she’s disappointed to be single again, “she seems OK,” the source adds. “She isn’t a fan of dating, and she never was. She always found dating awkward and unpleasant. She hates all the media attention that she knows she will get now. But she is a big believer in falling in love and spending her life with a partner that loves sharing hers.” For now, Aniston, who attended Amy Schumer’s Malibu wedding (see page 22) on Feb. 13, will simply continue staying busy with her many close friends and working on projects like her upcoming movie
Dumplin’ and her series with Reese Witherspoon for Apple TV. The source says, “No one is concerned about her now. She has an amazing life that she loves and is very grateful for. Jen would be the first one to say that she is a lucky girl.”