Jennifer Aniston has said she has “zero regrets” about trying IVF treatment to get pregnant but “the ship has sailed”.

Aniston, 53, is best known for playing Rachel Green in the hit sitcom Friends and is currently starring in the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show.

The US actress told beauty magazine she privately went through a difficult time in her late 30s and 40s, while under intense media scrutiny.

“I was trying to get pregnant,” she said.

“It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” she added.

“All the years and years of speculation… It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it.”

IVF is process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro [in glass].

She added: “I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today,” she said. “The ship has sailed.”

In 2018, Aniston and actor Justin Theroux announced they had separated after two years of marriage. Before that, she was married to another acting superstar, Brad Pitt.

She suggested the media can be cruel towards women in the industry who do not have children, and created a “narrative that I was just selfish” and “just cared about my career”.

“And God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child,” she said.

“And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldn’t give him a kid. It was absolute lies. I don’t have anything to hide at this point.”

The star went on to say she felt “a little relief now” about being older and found it “liberating”, because “there is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe’. I don’t have to think about that any more”, she explained.

“I’ve spent so many years protecting my story about IVF. I’m so protective of these parts because I feel like there’s so little that I get to keep to myself,” she continued.

“The [world] creates narratives that aren’t true, so I might as well tell the truth. I feel like I’m coming out of hibernation. I don’t have anything to hide.”