Jennifer Aniston Blasts J.D. Vance’s Past Comments About Women Without Children: ‘Truly Can’t Believe This’

Jennifer Aniston “truly can’t believe” that Sen. J.D. Vance could become the next Vice President of the U.S. after hearing his resurfaced 2021 comments that women like Vice President Kamala Harris who have not given birth are “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives.”

“All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day,” Aniston, 55, who has shared her personal IVF story in the past, wrote on her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, July 24.

“I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option,” Aniston continued. “Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”

Aniston’s post included a screenshot of a tweet resurfacing Vance’s July 2021 interview with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson. In the interview, the Ohio Republican, 39, said the U.S. was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

Vance, whom Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump named his running mate on July 15, then mentioned Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Harris is now running for president after President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race.

“It’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance told Carlson. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

Harris is stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children, son Cole, 29, and daughter Ella, 25. Vance and his wife Usha are parents to three children, sons Ewan, 6 and Vivek, 4, and daughter Mirabel, 2.

Aniston told Allure in November 2022 it was “really hard” to see the pregnancy rumors that plagued her throughout her career.

“All the years and years and years of speculation… It was really hard,” she said. “I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it. I would have given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.’ You just don’t think it.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The rumors that she and ex-husband Brad Pitt split over not having children or that she chose her career over kids were “absolute lies,” Aniston told Allure.

Aniston didn’t provide specifics about her IVF journey, later adding, “Here I am today. The ship has sailed… I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more, ‘Can I?’ I don’t have to think about that anymore.”

After the Allure interview was published, a source told PEOPLE Aniston was “at peace” and is “very happy in her life.”

In 2016, false pregnancy reports inspired Aniston to write an essay for the Huffington Post about how “fed up” she was with them and what they say about those who spread them.

“Here’s where I come out on this topic: We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone,” Aniston wrote. “Let’s make that decision for ourselves and for the young women in this world who look to us as examples. Let’s make that decision consciously, outside of the tabloid noise. We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.”