Justin Theroux says ex Jennifer Aniston is 'very dear' to him: 'I feel protective'

"Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" actor Justin Theroux has opened up about feeling "protective" of ex-wife Jennifer Aniston , adding that Aniston is "still very dear" to him.

Theroux spoke about Aniston in an interview published Tuesday with The Times , discussing Aniston's response to Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance's comments from 2021, in which the Ohio senator described certain politicians, including Vice President Kamala Harris, as "childless cat ladies." A spokesperson for Vance has since said the comments were taken out of context.

"She is still very dear to me so of course, yeah, I feel protective. But she batted back criticism, as well she should," Theroux told The Times.

In July, Aniston took to Instagram to respond to Vance's comments, which he initially made during a 2021 Fox News interview. Vance's remarks resurfaced earlier this year, shortly after former President Donald Trump announced he had selected Vance as his running mate for the 2024 presidential election, gaining traction after former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared the clip on X .

"I truly can't believe this is coming from a potential VP of the United States," Aniston wrote at the time on her Instagram story.

"All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too," she added.

Vance responded to Aniston's post later that week.

"You have Hollywood celebrities saying, 'Oh, well. JD Vance, what if your daughter suffered fertility problems?' Well, first of all, that's disgusting, because my daughter is 2 years old. And second of all, if she had fertility problems, as I said in that speech, I would try everything I could to try to help her, because I believe families and babies are a good thing," Vance said during an episode of "The Megyn Kelly Show" on SiriusXM.

In 2022, Aniston spoke about the struggles she faced while trying to get pregnant in her late 30s and early 40s, telling Allure that she went through in vitro fertilization and was "throwing everything" at trying to become pregnant.

Theroux and Aniston, who became engaged in 2012 and were married in 2015, announced their separation in 2018, though Theroux told The Times the pair are still close.

Despite their split, Theroux and Aniston have publicly shared admiration for each other in the past.

"Neither one of us is dead, neither one of us is looking to throw hatchets at each other," Theroux told the New York Times in 2018, shortly after the pair announced their separation. "It's amicable. It's boring, but, you know, we respected each other enough that it was as painless as it could be."