Jennifer Aniston Says She's Not Ruling Out Children Just Yet

Jennifer Aniston is keeping her options open.

The 49-year-old actress glows on the cover of ELLE's January cover, and in her accompanying interview with the magazine, she opens up about the possibilities of tying the knot again and potentially starting a family someday.

Aniston -- who was previously married to Brad Pitt from 2000-2005 and Justin Theroux from 2015-2017 -- says that, in her personal opinion, her marriages were actually "very successful."

"When they came to an end, it was a choice that was made because we chose to be happy," she explains. "And sometimes happiness didn't exist within that arrangement anymore."

Although Aniston never had kids with Pitt or Theroux, she's not giving up on the idea.

"Who knows what the future holds in terms of a child and a partnership -- how that child comes in…or doesn't?" she says. "And now with science and miracles, we can do things at different times than we used to be able to."

"We live in a society that messages women: By this age, you should be married; by this age, you should have children," she adds. "That's a fairy tale. That's the mold we're slowly trying to break out of."

Aniston continues on, discussing why people become so infatuated with her personal life.

"Maybe it has everything to do with what they're lacking in their own life," she exclaims. "Why do we want a happy ending? How about just a happy existence? A happy process? We're all in process constantly."

"What quantifies happiness in someone's life isn't the ideal that was created in the '50s," she adds. "It's not like you hear that narrative about any men. That's part of sexism -- it's always the woman who's scorned and heartbroken and a spinster. It's never the opposite. The unfortunate thing is, a lot of it comes from women. Maybe those are women who haven't figured out that they have the power, that they have the ability to achieve a sense of inner happiness."

Preach, girl!

Following her split from Theroux in February, Aniston has been keeping herself busy with a number of projects, including a new Netflix dramedy, Dumplin'. In the film, Aniston portrays a former beauty queen named Rosie Dickson whose plus-size teenage daughter, Willowdean "Dumplin'" Dickson (Danielle Macdonald), signs up for a pageant as a protest in their small Texas town.

Dumplin' also features new music from Dolly Parton, and when ET caught up with Aniston earlier this week at a junket for the film, she couldn't contain her excitement about getting to work with such a legend. The two recorded a son called "Push and Pull" together with Macdonald.

"[I was so nervous] but I sang through it and then got my voice. I literally couldn't have a squeak come out, and then when we finished, I remembered, I just burst into tears," Aniston recalled. "[Dolly] did get emotional after she was done."

"It was terrifying and fun and all of it... it was great," she continued. "[I was] fearless, yes, or fearful, depending on how you look at it. But I had Dolly and Linda Perry there, who were just patient and wonderful."

Hear more in the video below.

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