Jen's fresh start 'IT'S IMPORTANT TO FORGIVE'

The star’s learned that moving on is easier if you let go of the past

It’s been 27 years since Jennifer Aniston hurtled on to the world stage in Friends. It was the instant, giddying type of fame that saw her splashed over billboards and on a never-ending array of magazine covers and gossip columns.

The kind of fame, one might think, that would drive a person either to insanity or supreme arrogance. But right from the start, Jennifer – who is currently starring in the second season of The Morning Show – has had a secret weapon in her fight to stay grounded: her own friends.

Back in 1989, when the Cake star, 52, was just one of thousands of aspiring young actresses to move to Los Angeles looking for fame and fortune, she built a foundation of close friends who, like her character Rachel Green on the show that made her famous, were always there for her and still are.

“Someone said we were going to what they called at the time a Goddess Circle,” recalls Jennifer. “I was like, ‘Sorry, a what?’ They said, ‘We’re going to hold this thing called a sage stick and burn away dark energy.’

“I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve really landed in Los Angeles!’ It sounds woo-woo, but meeting creative women who are not all in this business was my touchstone.”

Throughout the years, she says, those friends have protected her with their love and support, sometimes with something as simple as saying, “Don’t listen to that!” when she was stung by criticism.