Just because someone’s life might look perfect on our TV screens, doesn’t mean there isn’t trouble behind closed doors. For actress Jennifer Aniston, she’s previously said that the reason she was able to deal with fame and the spotlight as she became a household name with Friends was because of her mother. But not exactly because her mom, late actress/model Nancy Dow, was supportive.
In contrast, Aniston explained that because her mom sat “comfortably in victimhood” throughout her childhood, she had an example of who she didn’t want to be as an adult. So what exactly happened between the 53-year-old star and her late mother? The actress has been pretty open about their “toxic” relationship.
In a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Aniston gave fans a glimpse into her relationship with her mom, including some experiences that left them not speaking for years. Though the actress has not confirmed how long they weren’t on speaking terms, The Things claims it was for a whopping 15 years.
“She had a temper. I can’t tolerate that,” Aniston said of her mother. “If I get upset, I will discuss [things]. I will never scream and get hysterical like that. [But] I was never taught that I could scream. One time, I raised my voice to my mother, and I screamed at her, and she looked at me and burst out laughing. She was laughing at me [for] screaming back. And it was like a punch in my stomach.”
Aniston added:
“She was critical. She was very critical of me. Because she was a model, she was gorgeous, stunning. I wasn’t. I never was. I honestly still don’t think of myself in that sort of light, which is fine. She was also very unforgiving. She would hold grudges that I just found so petty.”
According to multiple sources, Aniston chose not to invite her mom to her weddings to Brad Pitt in 2000 and Justin Theroux in 2015. Dow had given a few interviews about her relationship with Aniston throughout the years, even writing a tell-all book in 1999 called Mother to Daughter to Friends: A Memoir. As for Aniston’s wedding to Theroux, however, Dow seemed supportive despite not attending. “I think it’s wonderful!”
Aniston and Dow were said to have made up a couple of years before Dow’s death, and since her passing it seems the Murder Mystery star has come to understand her mom’s behavior a little better. In a 2018 interview with Elle, Aniston said:
“My mom said those things because she really loved me. It wasn’t her trying to be a b***h or knowing she would be making some deep wounds that I would then spend a lot of money to undo. She did it because that was what she grew up with.”
