Their undeniable chemistry and devotion was front and center as Jennifer Aniston and her beau, Jim Curtis, shared their deepest fears to a crowd of complete strangers last night in a made-for-Hollywood moment.
Under the bright lights, the Friends star, 57, giggled and stared adoringly at her 50-year-old boyfriend as she joined him on stage in Manhattan to promote his latest self-help book.
The A-lister and her smooth-talking hypnotherapist flame were picture perfect as they broadcast their love – and cheeky banter – to the masses in the unusually rare public display of affection.
But the bliss was quickly cut down by a source who spoke anonymously to Page Six to share Aniston’s friends’ fears Curtis may be an ‘opportunist’.
‘Some of Jen’s friends aren’t totally sold on Jim yet. They worry he could be an opportunist and feel like he can come off a bit performative,’ they said.
So far, there’s been no sign that their worries are valid.
But long before Curtis found himself under the spotlight as the new Mr Aniston, his life was weighed down by messy relationships, drug use as a youngster and even a temporary estrangement from his own son.
Now, the Daily Mail is revisiting some of his colorful history – decades before he ended up bagging Hollywood’s biggest darling.
Curtis, for his part, touched on his rocky past during Wednesday night’s sold-out event as he acknowledged his personal struggles and health woes.
Jennifer Aniston, 57, joined her boyfriend Jim Curtis, a 50-year-old hypnotherapist, for his book launch in Manhattan on Wednesday night – putting their love under the spotlight
Aside from loving glances and a warm embrace on stage, the couple stopped short of detailing anything personal about their 18-month relationship
During a Q&A from fans following their 30-minute conversation, Aniston revealed a ‘deep fear’ that Curtis is helping her overcome by having her moderate the event
‘I am no angel,’ Curtis once admitted. ‘I have made questionable life choices, to put it lightly.’
In his youth, Curtis confessed in his 2017 book – The Stimulati Experience – to dabbling in drugs and bouts of epic drinking.
He was also involved in a car crash after taking hallucinogenic mushrooms and a barroom brawl while he had an intravenous catheter threaded into his body.
Curtis, too, admitted to spending years lying to virtually everyone – including dates and prospective employers – about being involved in a motorcycle crash that never actually happened.
In reality, he was masking an unknown debilitating illness that he was struck down by in his late teens that left him in chronic pain, struggling to walk and with lesions on his spinal cord.
‘I was lying to everyone I met out of shame,’ Curtis wrote in The Stimulati Experience.
Curtis, pictured in an undated photo, touched on his rocky past during Wednesday night’s sold-out event as he acknowledged his personal struggles and health woes
Long before Curtis (pictured in 2015) became the new Mr Aniston, he has previously opened up about his messy relationships and drug use as a youngster
‘The motorcycle accident that never happened could explain my disabilities rather than admitting to people that I was sick.’
His health crisis stems back to the summer of 1995 when the then-19-year-old college student was spending the summer on Cape Cod engaging in self-described ‘heroic drinking, drugging, and Grateful Dead shows.’
One night, Curtis wrote that he ate an eighth of an ounce of psychedelic mushrooms before getting behind the wheel of his Toyota Camry and heading to meet friends.
After his fake ID was confiscated at a bar, he fled and crashed his car into the side of the establishment. Later that night, he hit another parked car and left without reporting the damage, according to his book.
The following day, he noticed a numbness in his foot that started to spread. In the ensuing years, Curtis suffered from migraines, chronic pain, difficulty walking and lesions on his spinal cord while doctors were apparently baffled as to what was wrong with him.
Curtis wrote that he kept ‘self-medicating with drugs and alcohol to avoid reality’ before his family staged an intervention.
One night, while undergoing an aggressive course of intravenous treatment through a PICC line inserted into his arm, Curtis wrote that he wound up in a brawl at a seedy New York bar – causing the catheter to rupture.
He was forced to take a leave of absence from the University of New Hampshire because of his illness but later got a business degree and launched a conventional corporate career.
Curtis then worked his way up in the digital health business, rising through the ranks at WebMD and Remedy Health Media.
Curtis shares a son, Aiden Curtis, with his ex-wife, Rachel Napolitano. The now-18-year-old, who Curtis previously admitted he had a rocky relationship with, lives with his mom and her second husband (pictured) in upstate New York
Yet despite being outwardly successful, Curtis wrote that he still felt like a failure.
‘Most of the time I was lying,’ he said, referring to the fake motorcycle story he had earlier concocted.
‘I was more charming than I am now,’ he said in a 2018 interview. ‘”Charming” became a word I hated because it is so fake.’
Meanwhile, his unsettled personal and dating life would also prove to be book-worthy fodder.
Long before Aniston came onto the scene, Curtis once had a lavish 200-person wedding and later welcomed a son.
Curtis had met his now-ex wife, Rachel Napolitano, when she was working at a West Village bar back in 1999.
He proposed with a two-carat diamond ring on a Cape Cod beach before the pair wed in 2003.
They split soon after having their son, Aiden Curtis.
Curtis has been open, in the past, about his tumultuous relationship with his son.
‘I wish I had a better relationship with my son,’ he wrote in his book, ‘but he lives with his mother most of the time, and he’s pissed at me.’
Aiden, now 18, played varsity football and baseball at Hastings High School in upstate New York before graduating this summer and matriculating at the University of Tennessee.
He lives with his mom and her second husband in the modest home where Rachel once lived with Curtis.
Neither were reachable for comment by the Daily Mail but Curtis has since said his relationship with his son has improved.
Aniston had reportedly been following him on Instagram for roughly two years and had already read his book. She was not a client – although a friend of hers apparently was
Aniston, 57, went Instagram official with Curtis, 50, to mark his birthday last November
Curtis’ journey to the wellness realm appears to date back to his involvement with Momentum, a Manhattan-based human potential training program.
It was at Momentum, where he took a six-month training course around 2015, that he met a woman he identifies in his book only by an apparent pseudonym, Lucy Lou, who he said he was so obsessed with that he stalked her online months after their breakup.
Describing her as his ‘kryptonite,’ Curtis wrote that he bought an engagement ring and planned to propose.
Despite referring to ‘red flags’ and ‘glaring issues’ over the course of their relationship, Curtis has never publicly shed light on why they ultimately called it quits.
In the aftermath, though, he admitted to obsessively checking out Lucy and her new boyfriend on Facebook, spiraling into what he called feelings of inadequacy and ‘not enough-ness.’
To heal himself emotionally and physically, he plunged head-on into the self-help world, studying meditation, alternative medicine, going on a ‘soul journey’ in Arizona involving horses, a sweat lodge and Native American-inspired energy healing.
He also visited the controversial Brazilian faith healer known as John of God – years before the healer’s conviction for sex crimes.
Since then, Curtis has studied everything from transformative education and neurolinguistic programming to hypnosis. He eventually became a health coach and later developed what he now calls ‘hypno-coaching.’
Ultimately, his colorful past wound up being the perfect subject matter to catapult him into the spotlight – catching the eye of Aniston along the way.
Curtis had previously revealed the pair ‘chatted for a long time’ before taking their romance up a notch
And his history has seemingly done nothing to deter Aniston, who he was introduced to by mutual friends in early 2025.
At one point during the book event on Wednesday, Aniston gushed as she credited Curtis for helping her to overcome a ‘very very deep fear of public speaking’ by inviting her to address the crowd.
Later, Aniston went as far as making a racy joke about her boyfriend as she revealed she used to frequent the same venue for gym classes as a high schooler.
‘I went to Steiner school just down the street so I would come to this gym every Thursday. And I wasn’t very sporty, but we had to do dodgeball and there were these huge red balls,’ she told the crowd during a 30-minute Q&A.
‘And there was no field it was just indoors so you had to run for your life. So it’s quite a full circle moment to be back here with you.’
She then looked at Jim and quipped: ‘Well… speaking of dodging balls…!’
Aside from the loving glances and a warm embrace on stage, the couple stopped short of detailing anything personal about their relationship.
Curtis had previously revealed the pair ‘chatted for a long time’ before taking their romance up a notch.
Aniston had reportedly been following him on Instagram for roughly two years and had already read his book. She was not a client – although a friend of hers apparently was.
The duo made things Instagram official last November with a black and white photo of them embracing.
And in the 18 months since they started dating, The Morning Show star has repeatedly raved publicly about her partner.
‘He’s very special, very normal and very kind, and wants to help people heal, move through their trauma and stagnation into clarity,’ Aniston said late last year.
‘He’s quite extraordinary and helps many, many people.’
Insiders, too, have previously dished on their love, telling the Daily Mail that she is so fond of her beau because there is zero competition between them – unlike her famous exes Brad Pitt, Vince Vaughn, John Mayer and Justin Theroux.
‘It is all about her and how she feels and what she needs,’ the source said. ‘He never talks about his career or tries to network with her contacts, he has no interest in being an actor or being famous.
‘She has said with him she can exhale, she can let herself go and breathe because there is no pressure.’
The Daily Mail reached out to reps for Aniston and Curtis.
