LABOR PAINS?

Jennifer Aniston Compares Shooting ‘The Morning Show’ to Childbirth

The actress likened the hit drama’s demanding shooting schedule to giving birth, which she has never done.

Actress Jennifer Aniston, 56, compared the exhaustion she feels after shooting the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show to the pain of childbirth.

The former Friends star, who has never given birth, opened up about the show’s grueling filming schedule during an interview for Glamour‘s September 2025 cover story alongside her The Morning Show co-stars. More specifically, she likened it to the “agony of pushing that watermelon out of a tiny little pinhole,” basing her colorful metaphor on friends’ experiences.

When Glamour writer Jessica Radloff asked whether Aniston, who plays ambitious journalist Alex Levy on the hit streaming drama, would return to the show for another season, Aniston lamented at the prospect. “Every year since I finished the first season, I was like, ‘Well, that’s it—I’m dead. That just killed me.’ And then you forget,“ Aniston said. ”I kind of compare it to what childbirth must be like when my friends are like, ‘You just kind of forget what it was, and then next thing you know you’re knocked up again.’”

Aniston continued the analogy, adding that “having that same agony of pushing that watermelon out of a tiny little pinhole, and then you just get to do it again.” Aniston does not have children and has not experienced going into labor or giving birth.

“I do feel there’s something extraordinary about finishing a season and not saying those words of, ‘I’m done.’ Just knowing that you’ve got to decompress and walk away from it for a while, and in my case, go do a comedy as fast as possible,” Aniston said.

The Morning Show was one of the first shows to stream on Apple TV+ since its premiere in 2019. The series, which is inspired by Brian Stelter’s 2013 nonfiction book Top of the Morning, revolves around the behind-the-scenes drama of producing morning news television shows. Following the release of the drama’s first season, it became the platform’s second most-viewed show, only trailing behind beloved sports comedy Ted Lasso.

The show has generally favorable reviews. The Daily Beast senior entertainment editor Kevin Fallon previously wrote that the show “takes itself incredibly seriously, all the while delivering material that often borders on just-plain goofy,” which is remedied by strong performances from its star-studded cast, including Hollywood A-listers Reese Witherspoon, Billy Crudup, and Jon Hamm.

In 2020, Aniston won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Levy. Aniston also serves as an executive producer on the show.

Amber LevisBreaking News Intern

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