Jennifer Aniston responds to claims she's too 'selfish' and career-focused to have children

'I don't like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women, that you've failed yourself as a female because you haven't procreated'

Jennifer Aniston has had a personal life fraught with tragedy and heartache and a career of comedic peaks and troughs.

But out of all the repeat media speculation that has really irked her over the years, it’s being made to feel “selfish” for concentrating on her career instead of settling down and starting a family.

“Oh, God, so many painful things,” she told Allure magazine. “The accusation that I've put my career before the want, the desire to be a mother.”

“This continually is said about me: that I was so career-driven and focused on myself; that I don't want to be a mother, and how selfish that is.”

“I don't like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women, that you've failed yourself as a female because you haven't procreated,” she continued elsewhere.

“I don't think it's fair. You may not have a child come out of your vagina, but that doesn't mean that you aren't mothering - dogs, friends, friends' children.”

“Its quite rude, insulting, and ignorant.”

“Even saying it gets me a little tight in my throat.”

Aniston is currently the source of tabloid speculation over her forthcoming wedding to fiancé Justin Theroux – the cousin of British documentary maker Louis Theroux and a man she describes a little bit like a dog.

“He is so fiercely loyal,” she said. “Beyond protective. I mean, the way he takes care of our dogs, he takes care of me, he takes care of friends.”