Jennifer Aniston’s split from Justin Theroux caused her to miss the Oscars. Boo!
She snubs biggest night of the year amid separation woes
At any given Oscars ceremony, you’re almost always guaranteed to see Jennifer Lawrence with a wine glass in her hand, Meryl Streep looking fierce, and Jennifer Aniston schmoozing with Hollywood’s finest, regardless of whether she’s attached to a nominated project or not. Sadly, this year, we were pretty disappointed to see she was a big fat no-show – and it seems it’s all thanks to her soon-to-be ex-husband Justin Theroux. Insiders tell heat that the star was too upset to attend the awards, as she didn’t want to be labelled (yet again) as “poor Jen”.
“She had invites to all the big events, such as the Vanity Fair party, which she’d accepted months ago,” says our source. “But she changed her mind after the divorce was announced. She was still tempted to go, but in the end decided she felt it would be too humiliating. Jen is still feeling hurt about what happened and didn’t want to be facing endless questions about her love life all night long. The whole situation has made her not want to leave the house and she blames Justin.”
The couple had been together since 2011 and married in a secret ceremony in 2015. Jen’s publicist announced their separation to the press on 15 February, where it was revealed they had actually split at the end of last year. Now we’re now told that Jen had wanted to keep their break-up under wraps until after awards season, but Justin didn’t want to put up with the constant speculation any more, and when he was pictured in New York for her 49th birthday while she was in LA, she realised they couldn’t hide it any more.
Instead of a night out partying at the Oscars, our source tell us that Jen spent the evening with best friend Courteney
Cox. “Jen leaned on Courteney when she divorced Brad, and now she’s doing the same after the split with Justin,” we’re told. “She’s been spending most evenings at Courteney’s, and they decided to stay in and watch the Oscars with a bottle of wine. Jimmy Kimmel [the ceremony’s host and one of Jen’s closest friends] tried to encourage her to come out and celebrate with him. But she just thought it would be too much to deal with, and she didn’t want to have to think about getting all glammed up and having the spotlight on her, so she decided to support him from the couch instead.”
In fact, even though we know and love Jennifer for her glamorous red-carpet appearances, she has actually only been spotted out twice since the split announcement, in low-key trips to see friends. It appears the actress is taking some time out to recover. And while rumours have circulated that Jen is back in touch with her ex-husband, Brad Pitt, it seems her friends just want her to recuperate so that she can feel happy again. Our source adds, “Jen has so many friends in Hollywood, and she usually loves this time of year and all the fun that comes with it, so everyone is hoping she’ll be back next year. She has really happy memories of being at the Vanity Fair party with Justin, so it’s going to be hard to get back out there without him. But Jen has a lot of great people in her life who will do whatever they can to help her get through this. She has promised to wow everyone when she does make her first official appearance.” ■ KATIE HOLLOWAY
‘Jen is still feeling hurt about what happened’