Jennifer Aniston Talks Difficult 'Friends' Reunion, 'Hurtful' Rumors About Personal Life

Jennifer Aniston is getting candid about the challenges she faced when she filmed the "Friends" reunion as well as the rumors surrounding her personal life.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 52-year-old actress revealed that it was director Ben Winston who convinced her and her "Friends" co-stars to film the reunion, which aired on HBO Max in May. However, she said that filming brought its own challenges, admitting, "Time travel is hard."

While Aniston expected the reunion to be "fun," she shared that she ended up walking out of filming "at certain points" after becoming emotional.

The actress, who starred as Rachel Green on "Friends" from 1994 to 2004, revealed that being on the set brought back tough memories of her going through "the hardest time" of her life.

Despite this, Aniston said she and her co-stars Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer had "so much fun together."

Further discussing the strong chemistry of the cast, the "Morning Show" star recalled that back when they were renegotiating their salaries, the studio had threatened that "Friends" could go on with just four of its six stars. "We were like, 'What? You can? You can get rid of Rachel or Joey or who?' Then it was like, 'No they can't, wake up,'" Aniston shared.

During the interview, Aniston was also asked about how the attention surrounding her private life has impacted her career. She admitted that she used to take the pregnancy rumors and the "she chose career over kids" assumption "very personally."

"It's like, 'You have no clue what's going 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," she explained.

Aniston cited Dolly Parton as an example of a star who also doesn't have children. However, she said the difference between her and the singer is that "no one's tried to put [Parton] in a white picket fence."

Aniston eventually learned to take the rumors in stride. "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," she said.

Meanwhile, this wasn't the first time Aniston has opened up about how difficult filming "Friends: The Reunion" was for her. According to the "Murder Mystery" star, she "couldn't stop crying" on set.

"Going back there, it’s nostalgic in a way that’s kind of also a little melancholy, you know? Because a lot has changed and we have all gone down different roads, some easy and some not so easy for each of us. It was brutal, and also you can’t turn it off," she said on Rob Lowe's "Literally! With Rob Lowe."

Aniston told Lowe that at one point, she and her co-stars were "all kind of in a puddle."

"Even LeBlanc broke at one point. You know, Mr. Tough Guy," she said. "You know, our brother. Mr. Impenetrable. Our big brother who would kill anybody if they looked at you wrong. Even he got a little misty."