Stop waiting for Jennifer Aniston to gloat about the end of Brangelina – your memes about her are sexist

Brangelina is over, and I have to say I’m rather sad, though unsurprised, that they have followed the common Hollywood narrative (the real Hollywood narrative, that is, rather than the fictional one pumped out by its movies: fall in love, make some babies, divorce.)

Despite the headlines focusing on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, however, the public has become enamoured with a strange subplot. Jennifer Aniston has been trending on Twitter since the news of Brangelina’s demise, as many people seem to think, having once been married to Brad Pitt, she must have something to say on the matter. In fact, memes and messages circulating around social media assume Aniston may even be delighted over the collapse of the couple’s marriage. The Daily Mash even ran with the tongue-in-cheek headline: “Jennifer Aniston hospitalised after dangerously prolonged laughing fit”, while spurious stories from “insiders” who claim that Jen-An thinks the split is “karma” have been splashed across Us Weekly, The Daily Mail, The Mirror and more.

It seems that having been in the original epic ‘Brad Pitt: The Divorce’, Aniston is very much the character everyone wants to make a return in the sequel. But this is real life - and I pity the former Friends star, for she just wants to get on with hers.

Still, the public won’t relinquish their efforts to drag her into the divorce, which is deeply unfair given that she broke up with Pitt 11 years ago. That’s a long time, however uncomfortable the circumstances were in which they split, and everyone seems to have successfully moved on – particularly Aniston, who is currently married to Justin Theroux.

And surprisingly enough, it’s not just romance that has left her life looking pretty fulfilled over the last decade. The suggestion that she has spent 10 years of her life thinking about her ex-husband looks daft when you consider the colossal amount of work she has done; a whole backlog of films, from Horrible Bosses to Mother’s Day to Cake, have seen her win both critical and box office acclaim.

I feel especially sorry for Aniston, as it’s not the first time this year she’s been in the news for stupid reasons. In June, after she was spotted on a beach with a slightly bloated stomach, the media enthusiastically pushed rumours that she was pregnant, which the public lapped up. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, and Aniston ended up penning a justifiably angry blog post about how sick of the “pregnancy rumours” she was becoming. Clearly large numbers of people are praying for her insemination.

All of this coverage is, quite simply, sexist. I struggle to think of a male star who would be reminded so much about his fertility, ex-wife, or any other deeply personal part of their existence. Angelina Jolie was formerly married to Johnny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, but why is no one talking about them as Brangelina unfolds? Where are their memes? Who is suggesting that Thornton is secretly rubbing his hands with glee?

People still struggle to see Aniston as a hugely powerful and intelligent individual, whose everyday life does not need validation by men or the media. To get into the position that she’s in requires incredible drive, confidence and tenacity. And it’s time she got some respect. The public intrusion is not only claustrophobic, but uncompassionate.

Ever since the divorce, journalists have desperately tried to probe into her first marriage, which Aniston has carefully avoided talking about. She clearly caved in, in 2015, when a news station asked her about the matter, offering a tactful statement: “I don’t find it painful… I think it’s a narrative that follows you because it’s an interesting headline. It’s more a media-driven topic”. Behind the diplomacy, I suspect she is tearing her hair out, wondering what on earth she can do to make everyone leave her alone.

People have to realise that Aniston, Jolie and Pitt are not Play-Doh characters who they can mould into their favourite stereotypical shapes. They are trying to live happy and constructive lives, separate to the films that they make. The bizarre thing is that there’s such a disparity between the complete adoration the public has for stars, and the disregard they show for their privacy. Really, they are ordinary individuals, trying to move on with their lives. Let’s not keep Jennifer Aniston stuck in the past.