True to form, Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston have kept it classy since their February split, with both remaining relatively mum on the subject. Aniston opened up briefly (and kindly) in recent months, and now Theroux has broken his silence, too. The consensus, based on Theroux’s observations to the New York Times? The love these two shared simply shifted.
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Not surprisingly, much has been speculated about the reason Theroux and Aniston decided to end their marriage. And that, according to Theroux, is part of the reason he is hesitant to discuss their relationship at all. “That’s why I don’t go on Twitter. With the internet, it’s too inelegant a machine to accurately carve truth,” he explained.
With that being said, Theroux did finally offer some of his thoughts on the split.
“The good news is that was probably the most — I’m choosing my words really carefully — it was kind of the most gentle separation, in that there was no animosity,” he said. “In a weird way, just sort of navigating the inevitable perception of it is the exhausting part.”
A Hollywood marriage is, by nature, “kind of a carny lifestyle,” Theroux said. Because celebrities in relationships already spend so much time apart due to disparate work schedules and having to be on location in different parts of the country (or the world), the end of a marriage can look and feel very different than that of a non-Hollywood marriage. It “doesn’t have that seismic shift of an ordinary couple, where everything is, like, you have to tear a baby in half.”
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The marriage just evolved. Or devolved, if you will. Where the love once was, it shifted elsewhere — into an earnest friendship.
“It was heartbreaking,” he admitted before clarifying, “only in the sense that the friendship would not be the same, as far as just the day-to-day. But the friendship is shifting and changing, you know, so that part is something that we’re both very proud of.”
Is that to say there wasn’t any drama at all? That’s probably not entirely accurate. “Again, neither one of us is dead,” he said but noted in the same breath, “neither one of us is looking to throw hatchets at each other.”
So, while there are understandably many emotions at play, Theroux insisted that above all, the split has been one of mutual love and kindness. “It’s more like, it’s amicable,” he said. “It’s boring, but, you know, we respected each other enough that it was as painless as it could be.”
This narrative certainly seems to line up with Aniston’s comments to InStyle last month.
“The misconceptions are ‘Jen can’t keep a man,’ and ‘Jen refuses to have a baby because she’s selfish and committed to her career.’ Or that I’m sad and heartbroken. First, with all due respect, I’m not heartbroken. And second, those are reckless assumptions,” Aniston said, pointing out that no one knows what went on behind closed doors but the couple themselves.
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“There are definitely moments of not being balanced and poised, but I do that all in my own personal space,” she revealed.
“For the most part, I can sit back and laugh at the ridiculous headlines because they have gotten more and more absurd,” Aniston added. “I guess they’re feeding into some sort of need the public has, but I focus on my work, my friends, my animals and how we can make the world a better place. That other stuff is junk food that needs to go back in its drawer.”
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