Jennifer Aniston revealed the reason why she never had children as part of a powerful response to the constant speculation about her body.

The former Friends star, now 50, penned an opinion piece back in 2016 begging for the scrutiny to stop after endless stories, messages and social media posts asking whether she was pregnant.

"The sheer amount of resources being spent right now by press trying to simply uncover whether or not I am pregnant (for the bajillionth time... but who's counting) points to the perpetuation of this notion that women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful, or unhappy if they're not married with children," she wrote for the  .

Everyone, she continued, is complete with or without a mate, and with or without a child.

"We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone. Let's make that decision for ourselves and for the young women in this world who look to us as examples."

Jennifer carried on: "We don't need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own 'happily ever after' for ourselves."

She then revealed why she had never had children, adding she had "grown tired" of being part of the narrative.

"Yes, I may become a mother some day, and since I'm laying it all out there, if I ever do, I will be the first to let you know. But I'm not in pursuit of motherhood because I feel incomplete in some way, as our celebrity news culture would lead us all to believe.

"I resent being made to feel 'less than' because my body is changing and/or I had a burger for lunch and was photographed from a weird angle and therefore deemed one of two things: 'pregnant' or 'fat'. Not to mention the painful awkwardness that comes with being congratulated by friends, coworkers and strangers alike on one’s fictional pregnancy (often a dozen times in a single day)."

It was a change from what Jennifer had previously been saying on the subject of having kids, as shortly after her split from Brad Pitt - and finding out he'd had an affair with  on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith - she told  she wanted a family.

"I've said it so many times: I'm going to have children. I just know it," she said in December 2008.

More recently, in December 2018, Jennifer said she had gone off the idea, admitting she found the concept of motherhood "quite honestly, kind of frightening".

"Some people are just built to be wives and have babies," she added. "I don't know how naturally that comes to me."