Jennifer Aniston is not pregnant …
and she’s fed up with people talking about it. So why don’t the press bother someone else?
There are plenty of stars desperate for the limelight. Jennifer Aniston isn’t one of them. She leads a quiet life with her husband and friends, and has no interest in sharing her family plans with the world. So why should she have to answer questions about pregnancy?
And we’ve all been there, right? Having to answer tactless baby-related questions through gritted teeth.
The question might not be, ‘Are you pregnant yet?’ It could be, ‘Are you in labour yet?’ ‘Have the contractions started?’ Or, ‘Are you planning on having any more?’ But however kindly the question is meant, you end up fuming inside.
During my first pregnancy, I was two weeks ‘overdue’. I put ‘overdue’ in speech marks, because the due date was decided by the hospital, not me. My baby never signed up to a timescale.
Around about the due date, the phone calls started from well-meaning friends. ‘Are you getting any twinges?’ ‘Anything to report?’
It drove me absolutely mad. NO there was absolutely nothing to report. And PLEASE stop asking.
If I didn’t answer calls, everyone would be certain I was in labour. So my phone was glued to me 24-hours a day (alongside a giant bottle of Gaviscon).
I tried to be serene and earth-mother like, telling everyone there was no rush. The baby would come when it was ready. Overdue wasn’t really overdue. But inside I was SO frustrated. WHEN WILL THIS BABY COME? The questions made me so stressed, I swear it made the labour take longer to start.
Flash forward two years later and my partner and I were trying for a second child. And failing. The questions came again. ‘Are you thinking about having another?’ ‘Don’t you think Lexi would like a little brother or sister?’
‘Yes!’ I wanted to scream. ‘We ARE trying for more. We’re just not bloody succeeding! THANK YOU for reminding me.’
These days, us women are used to having control. We get to choose our jobs, our husbands and, in theory, when/if we have kids.
But the reality is, nature is in control. We don’t have much say in pregnancy – much as we might want to. And plenty of women, like Jennifer Aniston, get married later in life. They might not want kids, or find it harder to have them. We’d never ask a forty-something woman in real life, ‘Are you going to get pregnant?’ Not unless she was a really good friend. So why do the press feel it’s okay to ask Jennifer Aniston these intrusive pregnancy questions?
I can’t imagine anything more stressful or embarrassing than having the world talking about your pregnancy plans. So let’s be a good friend (get it? Ha ha …) to Jennifer Aniston and leave her alone. Love Suzy K Quinn xxx
[tweetthis] Suzy K Quinn is the author of new motherhood fiction, the Bad Mother’s Diary. This book
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