Jennifer Aniston shared her thoughts on the possibility of balancing her career with motherhood just weeks before her ex-husband, Brad Pitt, met Angelina Jolie on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

The couple’s marriage, which began in a lavish ceremony 20 years ago, didn’t last long, and they remain friends.

In 2004, Aniston told The Guardian that she believed she could manage acting and pregnancy, saying, “I’m just truly looking forward to slowing down.”

She didn’t specify when she would have a child, but she did mention their opposing filming schedules while she was wrapping up Friends and Pitt was finishing Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Jolie.

Aniston commented that they would have time together when Pitt began filming Ocean’s Twelve.

“I’ll have finished Friends by end of January, he’ll be finishing [Mr and Mrs Smith, opposite Angelina Jolie] at the end of February.”

“Then he starts Ocean’s Twelve. So I, thankfully, will be able to go and travel with him while he’s doing that.”

No one could have predicted that Aniston and Pitt’s marriage would end the following year.

Later, Pitt began a relationship with Jolie, which lasted 12 years before they split in 2016.

In 2018, Aniston gave a candid interview where she hinted at fertility struggles “behind closed doors” after constant speculation about whether she would have a baby.

The actress criticized the pressure on women to become mothers and speculated whether her purpose on the planet was something else.

She also talked about her split from Justin Theroux, saying that she was not heartbroken.

“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,” Aniston said.

She added that people didn’t know what was going on behind closed doors and that there was a pressure on women to be mothers.

“Maybe my purpose on this planet isn’t to procreate. Maybe I have other things I’m supposed to do?” she said.