THE NEXT JEN

JENNIFER ANISTON has faced down tabloid scrutiny, stalkers, and a relentless fictionalization of her love life—Barack Obama! Pedro Pascal!—but as the fourth season of her hit The Morning Showdebuts, America's favorite girl next door has leveled up to a whole new sphere of envy-inducing zen

JULIE MILLER

TO GET TO Jennifer Aniston's sanctuary, you climb up, up, up, into the hills of Los Angeles. Past mansions shielded by millions of dollars in manicured privacy hedges. Past the gate an alleged stalker crashed into in May, which is now being surveilled by a police cruiser and a private 24/7 detail. Past the security guard handing out NDAs to visitors, aside from this journalist. And through the towering front doors of her $21 million home.

The world is a burning hellscape, a fact explored through fictional reporters trying to chase it down in Aniston's Apple TV+ series, The Morning Show. But the actor has learned in her many years of stardom, and all its attendant bumps, how to block out the noise and calm the nervous system. Or how to try, at least.

This midcentury home, designed by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons, is an oasis. There are soft cream couches, white peonies, and white taper candles accenting the living room. One wall is nothing but a panoramic window overlooking Los Angeles, with a view stretching from Downtown to the Pacific. There are no screens or ambient sound. Whether it is this blanket of silence or the accoutrements on her coffee table—a raw amethyst (known for spiritual growth or inner peace), a white crystal (purity, clarity), an incense holder decorated with crows (knowledge, transformation) amid design books—her home has the anxiety-suppressing effect of a spa.

And Aniston looks like she lives in one. The exquisitely maintained 56-year-old is a monument to self-care. Her long hair is down and her eyes are bright blue. She wears a version of the outfit she's been wearing for years in the millions of paparazzi photos we've all seen: a slim-fitting long-sleeve black shirt, low-slung Rag & Bone blue jeans, black flip-flops, and jade bracelets (good fortune). When I say how calm I feel a few minutes into my visit, she reacts with warmth: "Good! That's the whole point." She gestures outside: "Out there, it causes nerves. In here," she says, motioning around her, "there should be no nerves."

Thirty-one years ago Aniston first endeared herself to us as runaway bride-slash-coffeehouse server Rachel Green in Friends. Her easy charm and comedic delivery were just as magnetic on movie screens—Bruce Almighty (2003) and Along Came Polly (2004). And she proved her dramatic depth in The Good Girl (2002) and Cake (2014). But it is The Morning Show, which she executive-produces and stars in, alongside her Friends sister (and real friend) Reese Witherspoon, that is her most fascinating showcase.

On it, Aniston channels Alex Levy, a morning news anchor making the boldest leaps and power grabs of her career in her 50s. This woman is so famous that her personal life makes headlines and her private heartbreak is plastered across multiple mediums for strangers' entertainment.

After one public humiliation too many in The Morning Show's second season, Levy says, "I didn't realize...that the thing people would find most entertaining is not even the thing that...I have risen to the highest levels of. I didn't realize that the most entertaining thing about me would be just batting me around like a freaking pinata while digging around asking questions about my sex life."

Levy and Aniston alike have emerged from the era of Hollywood when there could be only one female star in the room: The Morning Show depicts how Levy embraces her younger coanchor; Witherspoon and Aniston are, as stars, coequals. Diane Sawyer, who inspired Aniston's performance, loves that the women have shared center stage, onscreen and off. "An alliance of women who have great energy and resilience is a wonderful thing," Sawyer tells me.

In 2004, Sawyer was the TV host asking Aniston hard-hitting questions about some of the most vulnerable areas of her life. About how her soap opera actor father, John, left her mother, Nancy, an actor and model, so suddenly that her mom broke the news to Aniston when she got home from a birthday party, "it was pretty quick," Aniston laughs to Sawyer on ABC's Primetime Thursday broadcast, making light of the heartbreak. About her mother's criticisms of Aniston as a child—that her nose was too big and her eyes too close together. Aniston explains from her perspective: "helpful beauty tips." About how many kids she and her then husband, Brad Pitt, wanted to have. "We'd definitely love to have two, at least," Aniston answers.

While Levy has developed a self-protective steeliness after her decades in the public eye, Aniston hasn't—not even after nearly four decades, two divorces, approximately two thousand tabloid covers, and years of overly personal questions from strangers.

" I think her superpower is that she could very easily be hard, but she's incredibly open," says Sandra Bullock, a close friend. "People want to know about her and understand where she is in life and want her to be happy."

Fame was never Aniston's goal—and it still knocks her sideways sometimes. (She views paparazzi when she's working as "almost an embarrassment, to be honest.") Growing up, she recalls, people looked to actors like Shirley MacLaine and Mary Tyler Moore not because they were gorgeous and on magazine covers, but because they had made movies and television that moved them. Aniston's celebrity, as gravity-pulling as it can be, has never defined her: "I've always been more into metaphysical things and 'What if there's something bigger out there than all of us?' " She's learned not to put everything at the altar of fame, "it's not real," she tells me. "My interests are other than that." During her 20s, she began joining women's circles with her female friends. She says, "That opened me up to the importance of women in each other's lives and how important it is to support and hold each other up when so many want to tear each other down."

"We were from that time in the business where NOONE WANTED THE LADIES TO BE FRIENDS—IT WAS ABOUT PITTING EVERYONE AGAINST EACH OTHER," Sandra Bullock says. "We were told we weren't supposed to do that meaning like and respect and honor each other.''

ABOUT 15 YEARS ago, Aniston and Bullock were attending a mutual friend's wedding when they locked eyes across the aisle. (Bullock doesn't know why they were sitting on separate sides, given they were both friends of the groom, but it is her memory and a better visual.) They spent the night trading shots and notes. " We were just like, 'Oh my God, we need to meet and cut loose,' " says Bullock. "And we did." The hangover, Bullock notes, was epic. Aniston recalls, "I don't know what I was sending her, but it was definitely stronger than what she was sending me."

Their rapport was so easy that they wondered why they hadn't spent time together before. They both love interior design, dated the actor Tate Donovan, and appreciate a practical joke: Bullock later crashed a junket interview to surprise her with tequila and limes. They shared something else too: " We were from that time in the business where no one wanted the ladies to be friends—it was about pitting everyone against each other," Bullock says. "We were told we weren't supposed to do that—meaning like and respect and honor each other."

Aniston has brought Bullock into her inner circle—inviting her to holiday get-togethers, on spring break trips, to numerology readings. "You write down your birth date and, whether you believe in it or not, we're all scribbling down our thoughts and in it together," says Bullock. " Nothing is for her alone ever. Everything she does is for everyone else included."

Gwyneth Paltrow is another close friend, whom Aniston met decades ago when her Friends costar David Schwimmer was filming The Pallbearer. Their love interests overlapped off-screen as well as on. While discussing the genesis of her and Paltrow's relationship, Aniston says, "ironically, I went to her and Brad's engagement party," meaning Pitt, the man who proposed to them both. Aniston and Paltrow's friendship outlasted both women's Pitt chapters, but I can't help but ask, do they ever talk about Pitt?

"Oh, of course," Aniston says, waving her hand and sounding everything like Rachel Green. "How can we not? We're girls." But they trade wellness intel more than gossip. "We're always swapping advice—'What are you doing for this? What are you doing for that? Do you have a new doctor for that?' "

Jason Bateman, whom Aniston met when he was starring with her friend on a '90s sitcom, is also an Aniston intimate. He's part of the chosen family, Aniston says. "Sometimes you look back at the person you were in your 20s, and you don't recognize that person or those people around you.... But we've grown up together." Adam Sandler is another "lifer" whom Aniston met in her early 20s, through a mutual friend. "Anything that happens in my life that he hears about, he's one of the first people that I hear from. He would lay down on the tracks for me." Aniston has gravitated back to both men onscreen— with Bateman on five films, including Horrible Bosses, and with Sandler on both Murder Mystery movies for Netflix. "As we're getting older, I think we're realizing that quality of time spent is probably at the top of the what's-important list for us."

Every Sunday, Aniston gathers 10 to 15 people for dinner, often including Bateman; his wife, Amanda Anka (who is also close to Aniston); their daughters; and Jimmy Kimmel and his wife, Molly McNearney. Everyone sits at the same seat, with Aniston at the head. Bateman said that the group had to gently coax Aniston, a lover of Mexican cuisine, to broaden her menus. "She stumbled upon a burger that is almost identical to the In-N-Out burger," says Bateman, referring to the California chain. "She actually found some company to print up a bunch of the papers that are wrapped around the burgers with 'Jen-N-Out' on it. It looks exactly like the logo. You can either have the beef or chicken, the lettuce or a bun around it. Then usually one of us will bring dessert."

Aniston's in tune with her friends' kids too. "She almost makes us parents look bad because she's so incredibly attentive and consistent with her curiosity and warmth," says Bateman, referring to Aniston's relationship with Francesca, 18, and Maple, 13. "She's the first one to call or text about big dates in the girls' lives. She has questions about boyfriends." Asked if she'd qualify as an aunt, Bateman says, "Aunts you might not see all the time. She's almost closer to a co-mom with Amanda. She's been a part of their lives from the moment they were born." He adds, "it is odd for them to even understand the public Jennifer Aniston."

I cant help but ask, do she and friend Gwyneth Paltrow ever TALK ABOUT BRAD PITT? "Oh, course; Aniston says, waving her hand and sounding everything like Rachel Green. "HOW CAN WE NOT? WE'RE GIRLS."

Francesca has also been the lucky recipient of some of Aniston's wardrobe: Now when the families go on vacation, she says she'll realize Francesca is in one ofher hand-me-downs. "Well, there's my bikini. Your child is now wearing my bikinis. Whoa. We've come a long way.

THIS is NOT the first time Aniston has allowed Vanity Fair into her inner sanctum. Twenty years ago, ahead of the release ofher sexy Clive Owen collaboration, Derailed, she invited Leslie Bennetts into her Malibu beach house. It happened to be for Aniston's first interview following her split from Pitt. The 2005 story, "The Unsinkable Jennifer Aniston," featured an eat-your-heart-out photo shoot: She reclined in a white men's button-down, black panties, and thigh-highs.

"I haven't looked at that article in forever. I just remember the experience of doing it—which was kind of jarring. It was also such a vulnerable time. Butyeah, that was one for the memoirs." (She'll write a memoir, she says, "when I have more to memoir.") "journalism back then felt more like a form of a sport," she continues. "There's obviously some PTSD we all have, which is why these scare me"—she means interviews—"How are they going to misinterpret my words or take something out of context? And one line nowadays..."

Though Aniston's positivity and resilience are threaded through the old Vanity Fair piece, her candid statements about her breakup—and Pitt's relationship with Angelina Jolie—made tabloid tidal waves and arguably launched the celebrity-gossip corner of the internet. Snarky blogs like Dlisted and Perez Hilton made a meal out of it all. Aniston calls that era ofher tabloid life "the love triangle" and details her survival approach: "just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on walking, girl."

" It was such juicy reading for people. If they didn't have their soap operas, they had their tabloids." Ofthe media frenzy, Aniston says, "it's a shame that it had to happen, but it happened. And boy did I take it personally."

" They were sort of building us up and then tearingyou down," she says before comparing herself to a pinata. Almost immediately she recognizes the line as one ofher own—Alex Levy deriding an invasion of privacy. Aniston puts her hands over her eyes monkey-emoji-style and asks, "Oh God, did I just quote The Morning Show?" And then gets back on track: "I didn't have a strong enough constitution to not get affected by it. We're human beings, even though some people don't wantto believe we are," she says. "They think, You signed up for it, so you take it. But we really didn't sign up for that."

Since the media crucible ofher 2005 divorce, Aniston has developed an extrasensory awareness of any conversation subject that is adjacent to SEO clickbait territory. Alex Levy makes a power grab in season four, so I ask Aniston to tell me about a business negotiation that was a turning point for her. She tries to describe a professional moment without giving away any identifying intel. "Sorry to be cagey," she says. "We asked for something that was very reasonable based on what we would be bringing to the table. It allowed me to really understand the power of no. That was also in the day when [pay] equality was still a struggle." There are two women in the entertainment realm whose names she asks me to keep out of this piece after they come up. Considering The Morning Show's coverage of recent real-life political news, I ask about Donald Trump-related storylines. Witherspoon's journalist character reports on the storming of the Capitol in season three, and season four begins in 2024, as Trump mounts his return to office. As such, he plays a role in the new episodes. "Making a TV show about political coverage in a deeply divisive time can be tricky," Aniston says diplomatically. "You want to appeal to all audiences." When I note that her character's love interest, a billionaire played by Jon Hamm, seems reminiscent of Elon Musk—they're both daredevil rocket builders—she swats away the comparison, in part because "I don't find him desirable in anyway or shape."

There are points in our conversation when Aniston seems to be less cautious about choosing her words. Like when I begin speaking her love language—interior design—and ask about the pair of men's hands sculpted in bronze on either side of her fireplace. "When people are like, 'Are you an ass man? Are you a leg girl?' I like hands," she says, noting that she found the andirons in one ofher favorite design stores, Blackman Cruz. "Hands are everything. My father had the most beautiful hands." These pieces were the first big purchase for the first home she decorated by herself, for herself.

THE 90s ARE having a bit of a revival, but Aniston is surprised to hear that her Rachel Green wardrobe has been christened a nostalgic fashion ideal by Vogue, WWD, and many a Gen Z'er. In 2019, Ralph Lauren released a tribute Friends collection inspired by Rachel, who worked for the designer according to canon. Hailey Bieber even seems to have emerged from Rachel's closet most days—wearing plaid skirts, denim overalls, and loafers—and even channeled the style of the Friends character for Halloween in 2023.

"I celebrate the '90s coming back. Except for those narrow sunglasses and the really thin eyebrows," says Aniston. "I love vintage clothes from the decade. They fit me so well."

Rachel Green is reverberating through the culture for another reason: She, along with Carrie Bradshaw, is an obvious influence on the "West Village Girl," the archetype that Brock Colyar took viral in New York magazine: a young woman enjoying life in Manhattan's gougingly expensive, maximally Instagrammable neighborhood.

Rachel was from a rich family. But Aniston makes a point of noting in our conversation that she was not. Her father did not find steady onscreen success until the '80s. At times he couldn't pay the mortgage without help, according to the 1999 memoir by Aniston's mother. While discussing her good fortune, Aniston says, "Listen, 1 am so grateful. I came from nothing. We were broke. There's no nepo baby here."

Growing up in New York, Aniston lived with her mom in a modest Upper West Side apartment—and eventually attended the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, the public school of Fame fame. Her escape hatch from the household's postdivorce gloom were Laverne Q Shirley, Happy Days, and One Day at a Time. Because she didn't have a VCR, Aniston recorded audio from her beloved shows and listened to episodes again and again on her Radio Shack tape player, learning the shows by heart. "I was going to be Laverne or Shirley," she says. She partly manifested her future as a sitcom star—Bullock refers to her as "the manifester"—and to some degree hoped her acting success would impress her father. "Always wanting to get Pop's approval—it was the thing that drove me and was also my biggest heartbreak: trying to impress and prove your value to a man who's only capable of so much," Aniston says. She felt that if she made it as an actor, "then he will love me as much as I love him." Before he died in 2022, Aniston says that her dad expressed his pride in her: " We had a few of those moments."

With Friends, she did for others what Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams had done for her. While Aniston always knew Friends WAS a miracle of casting and cosmic kismet, she didn't realize the personal impact the show had until 2021's Friends reunion. During one segment, international fans relayed how they learned English by watching the show or found relief from dark personal times with it. Of acting, Aniston says, "What helped raise me is something I got to put into the world and help other people. If \Friends\ was the only thing on my resume, I would be very happy and blessed."

The reunion was also a final curtain call for the cast of six. In 2023 Aniston's costar Matthew Perry was found dead from "the acute effects" of ketamine, with drowning a contributing factor. " We did everything we could when we could," Aniston says of trying to help the actor during his long struggle with addiction—Perry described his friends' efforts in his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. "But it almost felt like we'd been mourning Matthew for a long time because his battle with that disease was a really hard one for him to fight. As hard as it was for all of us and for the fans, there's a part of me that thinks this is better," Aniston says, looking solemn and out toward the ocean. "Tm glad he's out of that pain."

SINCE ANISTON'S AMICABLE split from actor Justin Theroux in 2018, she has not been publicly linked to any legitimate love interests. When I ask Bateman if he's ever set Aniston up on a date—he can't recall that he has—he says, "it's not surprising to me that she's not some serial dater, not because she's overly picky or snobby. You don't need to be some superhero to grab her attention. If you are comfortable in your skin, she gravitates to you. The challenge is for a guy to see past her fame and charisma and presence and beauty—to not be distracted by that—and tune into the stuff at the deep core."

Tabloid fanfic has recently linked her to Pedro Pascal after he and Aniston were photographed outside a West Hollywood restaurant, and to Barack Obama, after...no one is quite sure. Some version of the rumor—that the Friends star was dating the former president—spread so prolifically that Aniston appeared on Kimmel's late-night show to formally shut it down. "Of all the calls you get from your publicist...and then it's that, " Aniston said as Kimmel showed the cover of In Touch with the line "The Truth About Jen & Barack!" (The magazine stopped short of claiming a romance.) Aniston says she knows Michelle Obama better than she does the former president and even saw her somewhat recently. "I was lucky enough to have dinner with Michelle a month ago," she says, declining to share any additional detail aside from the fact that the rumor "wasn't even brought up" during their time together. "I don't think anyone really pays attention to reports like that if you're the subject of them."

Bullock says she and Aniston have hypothesized about some of the crazier reports. "We try to figure out the genesis of where some of these stories come from...but 75 percent of the time, we just cannot. They're literally pulled out of the ether." Bullock understands the world's perpetual interest in Aniston's love life, though: "She's so beloved that you go, 'I want that person to have their person' even if that person doesn't want a person."

Several weeks after we'd last spoken, Aniston is linked in the tabloids to a new love interest—this time, it's a handsome wellness guru and hypnotherapist named Jim Curtis. The two vacationed over the summer on Mallorca and in Big Sur, according to the reports—in April, Aniston told Travel+Leisure that she had tried hypnosis to help overcome her fear of flying. Aniston's rep declined to comment on the rumor to VF, but the Morning Show star follows Curtis on social media and has liked his posts. In May, Aniston posted a picture of his book Shift: Quantum Manifestation Guide: A Workbook for Coding a New Consciousness. During our first conversation Aniston had told me, " I have a real struggle, truthfully, about what to and not to share...and also, social media is a constant struggle for me." It isn't that surprising she wouldn't want to go there: Within days after the first paparazzi photos are published (the Mallorca trip included Bateman and Anka), Curtis's name is linked with Aniston's in thousands of web stories.

THIS MAY, WHILE Aniston was home, a 48-year-old man from Mississippi allegedly rammed his car into her gate. The accused stalker, whom prosecutors say had been flooding Aniston with emails, voicemails, and social media messages, was reportedly apprehended by Aniston's security until police arrived. (He has pleaded not guilty to felony stalking and felony vandalism but at press time was not standing trial; a judge found him mentally incompetent.) This is another subject that Aniston doesn't really want to discuss: "People are out of their minds. Who wants to put that energy out there." Her security team, says Aniston, is "not glamorous in anyway. It's a necessity."

"If there's an area in my life where I have no fear, it's in my career OF SPEAKING UP FOR WHAT I WANT. I don't do it in a scary or mean way. I JUST KNOW MY VALUE."

Bullock says she and Aniston have talked about these concerns; Bullock had her own frightening experience in 2014 when a mentally ill stalker broke into her home while she was there.

Sometimes, Bullock says, "it makes me think, Do I really have to go outside and navigate the world? There's the cases where they got into the house, the cases where they're outside the house, the cases where you're on a film set and they figured out where you are, and the cases that no one hears about. It's ongoing. It's not a one-off. And it does create a mindset where your home also unfortunately becomes your fortress."

Bullock says she and Aniston push each other out of their houses: "There's a motivation of going, 'Okay, we need to go somewhere. Where are we going?' " Says Aniston, "Tm desperately trying not to Howard Hughes myself."

Fora while Bullock and Aniston shared a fear of flying. "The two of us on a plane—it's the most pathetic thing to look at," Bullock says. "Usually it's us grabbing each other's arms from across the table with our heads down."

But two spring breaks ago, when Bullock was "not in a great place," Aniston summoned strength for her friend. "She just held onto my hand and goes, 'This is just a bump' ''—and talked her through the flight. "I was like, 'Who the fuck are you right now?' "

Aniston says she can still feel afraid of flying—the hypnotherapy was to help curb it, as were the calm apps she tried. But sometimes when her friends are really scared, "All of a sudden, my fear falls away and I get to take care of them. When there's someone in need of being calmed, I have such empathy for it that all of a sudden my fear goes out the window."

At 56, Aniston has elegantly navigated all kinds of turbulence. She is now trying to slow down her fast-paced work schedule to live more life. Aside from The Morning Show, Aniston is producing a9 toy remake scripted by Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody that will explore generational issues. (Aniston was slated to join the cast at one point but currently won't be; offers are out to other actors.) She will also costar as the narcissistic mother in a series inspired by Jennette McCurdy's best-selling book, I'm Glad. My Mom Died, which chronicles McCurdy's journey as a child star and her complicated relationship with her mother, and which resonated with Aniston. And she still fosters a dream of appearing on Broadway: "Growing up in New York City and seeing Annie, you just get swept into a fantasy world. I want to do that."

She approaches her career much differently now. "As a young actor, you can forget that you are the one who's earning income for the people around you," she says, crediting her manager Aleen Keshishian with helping her assert herself. "She would say, 'You're the boss. You pay us. Don't lose sight of your power in that. Don't become an asshole or bitch, but don't lose your voice.' " Aniston adds, " If there's an area in my life where I have no fear, it's in my career—of speaking up for what I want. I don't do it in a scary or mean way. I just know my value."

Though Alex Levy thrives on adrenaline in the newsroom, Aniston has had to take a step back from the 24/7 panic cycles of real-world news. " I could feel my anxiety and cortisol levels reaching a height that was not working. We weren't designed as human beings to digest this much information from all over the world in the split second when it happens. I'd rather keep a somewhat naive perspective than be in fear and negativity and rage and anger." She tries to block out cynicism and ego. Even though she's been a public figure for at least 35 years, the awareness of who she is "still hits me sideways sometimes." Aniston prefers to look at that discomfort with fame as a good thing, presumably because it means she isn't grounded in it. "You have to manage it and put it in its proper place and into its proper size. Because otherwise, if you don't...I've gone through many...." She takes a split-second pause before deciding to keep the specifics to herself. "Tm still trying to figure it out."

A follow-up phone call with Aniston ends when her Pvolve trainer knocks on the door for another workout session. As we say goodbye, I tell the actor that Tm not a crystal person but Tm going to try amethyst to see if it has the same calming effect on me.

"if my home can bring your nervous system into the parasympathetic nervous system, then I should open up a business. Because God knows we need that at this time." For now, though, the familiar star offers a recommendation with warmth and well-wishes.

"I think you should get some rose quartz"—unconditional love—"and amethyst. And also for this year, the year of the snake—now this is where I start to sound like a crazy personwhite jade." For grounding.

Then she tosses off one more self-deprecatory line in wry, easy, Aniston fashion: "I've basically incorporated all of the healing modalities in order to create a calm environment in the chaos of the wonderful industry and the world at large."

FOR DETAILS, GO TO VF.COM/CREDITS