In a May 8, 1796, letter to John Jay, George Washington wrote of his “serious anxiety” stemming from “misrepresentation,” which would “frequently flow and spread before they can be dissipated by the truth.” In other words, lies were rampant, and he was sick of this shit. Some 200 years later, another president can likely relate to the feeling, given persistent rumors that Jennifer Aniston is having a secret affair with former president Barack Obama, who, in another wild, specious, and unsupported blind item, is secretly separated from wife Michelle Obama.
A person with knowledge of the situation told Vanity Fair that these rumors are categorically untrue, and a source close to Aniston also characterized the affair rumors to VF as “beyond absurd.” There’s a conundrum for responsible journalists and exasperated subjects when trying to present the truth of a story like this one: If the people in question respond, they risk fueling the fire and stoking yet another leg of the news cycle. If they don’t respond and deny, then, well, they’re not denying a false report.
Before we get to the debunking, let’s trace the thread: This fanfic scenario first surfaced via an August cover story of the print edition of tabloid In Touch Weekly, claiming to expose “The Truth About Jen and Barack!” (A spokesperson for In Touch did not respond to Vanity Fair by press time.) The cover further claimed: “Michelle betrayed as Aniston steals her husband’s attention,” and helpfully added bullet points that read: “They’re obsessed with each other” and “Power circles in Washington and Hollywood can’t stop gossiping!” (It’s worth noting that James Heidenry, who was editorial director at In Touch when the story ran, was also the masthead editorial director of a special magazine—MAGAzine?—dedicated to singing Donald Trump’s praises. In Touch and the Trump hagiography are both published by A360 Media, formerly known as AMI, which came under fire for the catch-and-kill operation at the National Enquirer to protect Donald Trump’s reputation.)
In October, Aniston appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and flatly denied the claim that she and the former president were having or had an affair.
“That is absolutely untrue,” she said. “There is no truth…. I’ve met him once,” Aniston said of the former president, adding, “I know Michelle more than him.”
She did joke that, “Of all the calls you get from your publicist where you’re like, Oh no, what’s it gonna be, or emails saying some cheesy tabloid is going to make up a story, and then it’s that. I was not mad at it.”
That answer might be different now that the peanut gallery is at it again, seeming to coincide with Michelle Obama’s absence at both President Jimmy Carter’s funeral and Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Thanks to accounts like Instagram gossip aggregator DeuxMoi, who includes an in-bio CYA disclaimer that “this account does not claim all information published is based in fact,” the scuttlebutt has persisted. On Tuesday, January 14, the account posted that “someone [DeuxMoi] trusts did text me that a week ago” in regards to the former first couple being separated, “but I don’t really know for sure.” The following Thursday, @deuxmoi published a new podcast episode and touched on both facets of the story. Of the separation rumor, Deux said: “I heard that they were separated from somebody I know, but I don’t know, I felt like it wasn’t viable. It was just the rumor mill churning.”
“I’ve been getting so many questions about it,” she said, not acknowledging that, you know, posting those not-saying-just-saying types of stories might be why people keep asking.
DeuxMoi did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
Then we’ve got the garden-variety “body language experts” and the my-sister’s-catsitter’s-cousin’s-teacher’s-son “leaked DMs” shared by who-the-hell “influencers.” Listen, they don’t let just anyone use that siren emoji—it must be true. Wait, what’s that? They do let anyone use it? Oh.
One thing almost all the divorce doomsayers point to is Michelle’s whereabouts during recent presidential events.
Sure, maybe she skipped out on former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral and this month’s inauguration because she was trying to avoid a man, but consider that the man in question wasn’t Barack Obama, but Donald Trump. At the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Michelle delivered a stirring speech cautioning Americans to not “be our own worst enemies” and decrying Trump’s “petty” and “unpresidential” ways. “Why would we normalize that type of backward leadership?” she asked. “Doing so only demeans and cheapens our politics.” Is it surprising that she declined the chance to sit politely on that stage and pretend to be OK with a second Trump presidency?