In a candid Instagram video shared on January 6, Jennifer Aniston revealed a surprising truth about her iconic blonde hair, admitting that her signature pin-straight locks are not her natural color. "I was a natural brunette," the 56-year-old actress said, gesturing to her lighter hue. "This is fake." The disclosure, made during a casual chat with her longtime best friend Courteney Cox, has sparked renewed interest in Aniston's beauty routine and personal evolution, as she considers returning to her darker roots—a look she once sported for her role as dentist Julia in the 2011 film Horrible Bosses.
Aniston, who rose to fame as Rachel Green on the hit NBC sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004, has long been synonymous with her sleek blonde hairstyle, often dubbed "The Rachel" after her character's famous choppy cut in the show's early seasons. However, she confessed in the video that the style feels inauthentic to her origins. Cox, playing with a lock of Aniston's hair, framed it against her face and remarked that it evoked the Horrible Bosses character. "You were a badass dentist," Cox added, suggesting the brunette transformation might be worth revisiting. The exchange highlights the duo's enduring friendship, forged on the Friends set where Cox portrayed Monica Geller, Rachel's best friend.
Beyond hair color, Aniston has been open about the discipline behind her enviable physique and wellness habits. In a January 2025 interview with Allure, she described her approach as the "80/20 rule," emphasizing, “Eighty percent healthy living and then 20 percent is: Go have a martini, go have your pizza and burgers and stay up late with your friends. There's a balance.” She aims to work out a minimum of four times a week, incorporating meditation in the morning, stretching before bed, and prioritizing sleep hygiene. “I've been trying hard to put myself in bed during the week at 10 p.m.—turn everything off and then just sit there and let the world come crashing in,” Aniston explained, underscoring sleep's importance in her routine.
Born on February 11, 1969, in Sherman Oaks, California, to actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow, Aniston's early life was steeped in Hollywood glamour and challenges. Her godfather was actor Telly Savalas, a close friend of her father's, and her family's original surname was Anastassakis, changed after immigrating from Greece to the United States. Despite her lineage, Aniston faced personal hurdles, including a dyslexia diagnosis in her early 20s. In a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she recalled, "I thought I wasn't smart. I just couldn't retain anything."
School years were particularly tough for Aniston, who endured bullying during fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Speaking to friend Molly McNearney in a 2018 InStyle profile, she shared, "I was one of those kids who got sort of bullied, and I don't know why. I was one of the kids who the others would decide to make fun of. It was an odd period of time... I was a little on the chubby side, so I was just that kid." Attending New York's LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts—famously depicted in the film Fame—Aniston studied drama while playing volleyball and basketball. She was classmates with Chaz Bono, son of Cher, and often visited his home after school, as she told Allure in 2011.
High school also saw Aniston experiment with a goth phase amid the 1980s rebellion. "High school was tragic," she told People magazine. "Just not well-informed. You know, you're experimenting... I looked like a goth nightmare. I wasn't going for most beautiful. It was, 'How can I be the most rebelliously unattractive?'" Her first acting gig was an uncredited role as a dancer at McDonald's in the 1988 film Mac and Me. Before Friends, she replaced Jennifer Grey as Jeanine in the short-lived TV adaptation of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and starred in the 1993 horror-comedy Leprechaun.
To make ends meet in her youth, Aniston took on unglamorous jobs. "I made my allowance as a kid cleaning toilets. I'm actually pretty good at it," she told Parade in 2009. As a waitress before landing Friends, she admitted mishaps: "I dropped more than one Alpine burger in customers' laps, and you just do not want all of that Swiss cheese and mushrooms in your pants," she shared with Marie Claire. "I wasn't a good waitress, but I was told that I was very nice and charming, so people liked me anyway."
Securing the role of Rachel Green was no easy feat; Aniston competed against actresses including Jane Krakowski, Tea Leoni, Tiffani Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, and even Courteney Cox. According to Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman, "We originally offered Rachel to Courteney Cox, but she said she wanted to do Monica, not Rachel." The choice paid off, launching Aniston into stardom. On set, she, Cox, and Lisa Kudrow shared lunches daily for a decade, often enjoying what Cox called a "Jennifer salad"—a customized Cobb salad with turkey bacon and garbanzo beans, as revealed in a 2010 interview.
Aniston's path included turning down opportunities like a spot on Saturday Night Live. On The Howard Stern Show in late 2019, she explained, "I didn't think I'd like the environment there" and viewed herself as a more serious actress. She later hosted the show in 1999 and 2004, and made a cameo in 2016. The infamous "Rachel" haircut, which inspired a nationwide trend, was a source of mixed feelings for Aniston. In a Glamour interview, she called it "cringe-y" and "the ugliest haircut I've ever seen." Her hairstylist Chris McMillan admitted he was high when creating the look.
Despite earning $1 million per episode in Friends' final two seasons—making the cast the highest-paid TV stars at the time—Aniston nearly skipped the series finale. In a 2004 interview, she said, "I had a couple issues that I was dealing with. I wanted it to end when people still loved us and we were on a high. And then I was also feeling like, 'How much more of Rachel do I have in me?'" She returned, ensuring Rachel's iconic non-departure from the plane. Her then-husband Brad Pitt, a guest star on the show, skipped the taping to watch it air, preferring the surprise.
Aniston's personal life has been as scrutinized as her career. She endured a strained relationship with her mother, Nancy Dow, who was critical and unforgiving. "She was critical. She was very critical of me," Aniston told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. "Because she was a model, she was gorgeous, stunning. I wasn't. I never was." The two were estranged for years, exacerbated by Dow's 1999 tell-all book From Mother and Daughter to Friends and her exclusion from Aniston's 2000 wedding to Pitt. Aniston did not invite her mother to the ceremony. Dow passed away in 2016. Reflecting in a 2018 Elle interview, Aniston offered empathy: "She was missing what was [actually] important. I think she was just holding on and doing the best she could, struggling financially and dealing with a husband who was no longer there. Being a single mom in the '80s I'm sure was pretty crappy." Therapy helped Aniston process it: "It takes a lot of therapy, but you do absolutely get over it. That was her projection. It had nothing to do with me," she told WHO magazine.
Her 2005 divorce from Pitt, amid rumors involving Angelina Jolie from their film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, dominated tabloids. Aniston legally changed her name to Pitt post-wedding but restored Aniston upon filing for divorce. Fans took sides, with Los Angeles boutique Kitson selling "Team Aniston" and "Team Jolie" T-shirts for $30 each in 2005; according to Aniston's "Unsinkable" Vanity Fair profile, Aniston's shirts outsold Jolie's 25-to-1. Aniston has sued paparazzi multiple times for privacy invasions, including a 2000 case over backyard topless photos and a 2006 settlement after a paparazzo mailed similar images to editors. In legal documents, she claimed suffering "shame, mortification, hurt feelings, emotional distress, anger, embarrassment, humiliation, feeling of being violated and injury to her privacy and peace of mind."
The relentless media scrutiny peaked in 2016 when Aniston penned an op-ed for The Huffington Post titled "For the Record." "For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up," she wrote. "I'm fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of 'journalism,' the 'First Amendment' and 'celebrity news.'" She criticized the narrative portraying her as incomplete without marriage or children: "We don't need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own 'happily ever after' for ourselves." Currently dating hypnotherapist Jim Curtis, Aniston continues to defy expectations.
Aniston's lifestyle extends to travel and indulgences. Her favorite vacation spot is Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where she frequents the One & Only Palmilla resort with friends like Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Courteney Cox, Jason Bateman, and Amanda Anka. A fan of Mexican cuisine, she told Harper's Bazaar, "I always love a good Mexican dish, like fluffy crispy tortilla chips with guac." Her ideal margarita is "pure tequila, lime juice, a squinch of Cointreau," per Yahoo! Beauty. Exercise remains key; she enjoys running, cycling, elliptical intervals, yoga, Barre, and boxing for stress relief. "Boxing is a great way to get aggression out," she told InStyle. "You get a mental release of all this crap you're taking into your ears and eyes every day." Due to a recent injury, she's adapted her routine.
As a spokesperson for brands like Aveeno, Smartwater, and Eyelove, Aniston earns over $10 million annually through endorsements, according to Forbes. Her glow secret? "I can never stress enough to my friends that they must do as I do…hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Drink lots of water, get enough sleep, exercise, and eat a clean healthy diet, whenever possible," she advised The Cut. Aniston's journey from a natural brunette navigating dyslexia and bullying to a Hollywood icon exemplifies resilience. With ongoing projects like The Morning Show, her influence persists, inspiring fans to embrace balance and authenticity in an often superficial industry.