Jennifer Aniston reveals how her parents inspired her to prioritize health, fitness

Jennifer Aniston explained how losing her parents inspired her overall dedication to health and fitness.

The Friends star, 54, spoke about the death of her parents, Days of Our Lives star John Aniston and her mom Nancy Down.

“God bless my parents who are no longer with us, but they were not the specimens of health,” she said in her latest interview with USA Today.

Aniston’s father died in November 2022 and her mother, Nancy, passed away in 2016 at age 79 after a long illness. “My dad still lived to be 89 years old, shockingly, but that’s probably stubborn, Greek genes,” she added.

The Murder Mystery actress explained how watching her parents decline late in life was what made her realize she needed to prioritize her own health.

“My friends call me Dr. Aniston,” she laughed. “Just because I’m always up on the newest technology and [wondering] how can we improve our health in any way we can?”

Aniston further added, “To hear people say, ‘You look like you did on ‘Friends’!’ Listen, lovely compliment. But that’s a TV set they’re looking at.”

“If I tried to look the way I looked at 20, I would not really actually want to do that. It’s absolutely impossible,” she said.

“I want my body to get strong, because as I get older, I want my body to thrive,” she continued. “We’re all going to get older. We’re all headed to that exact same spot. But we can take care of our skin. We can have a healthy diet. We can drink lots of water.”