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Why Jennifer Aniston’s Ex-Husband’s Controversial Etiquette Is Raising Eyebrows

Why Jennifer Aniston’s Ex-Husband’s Controversial Etiquette Is Raising Eyebrows

Entertainment gossip and news from the Newsweek network of contributors

Justin Theroux, Jennifer Aniston’s ex-husband, is not only attracting attention on screen, but also on air.

On Wednesday, September 4, the 53-year-old Hollywood star shared on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon a rumor that raises eyebrows: his alleged habit of walking around naked on airplanes.

“I was going to ask you this backstage, but I’m doing it here for America. Do you sleep naked on international flights?” Jimmy Fallon asked bluntly, prompting Theroux — who was married to Aniston, 55, from 2015 to 2018 — to set the record straight.

Justin Theroux and Nicole Brydon Bloom attend the UK premiere of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” at Cineworld Leicester Square on August 29, 2024 in London, England. From nearly naked in the air to suiting up on the…


Hoda Davaine/Getty Images

“Sometimes you’re in the spotlight and you get questions from a gossip magazine or something like, ‘Can you confirm or deny X, Y?’” White Lotus actor explained. “You say, ‘Oh yeah, no, that’s not true.’ It’s usually pretty dumb — I got one that said I was a nudist on airplanes… That I like it, getting on airplanes naked and walking around.”

Without skipping a beat, Fallon, 49, jumped in: “I read this!” Theroux nodded. “Yeah, see? Fake news,” he said, adding: “So I thought it would be funny to say, ‘Yeah, I’m a nudist on airplanes.’ Like this could be hilarious.”

Theroux then went on to elaborate on how he and his friends come up with cheeky answers to scare off the press. “I had some ideas, like answer ideas with my friends. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t this be funny? What could we say?’ We could say, ‘Yeah, I insist on being naked because X, Y, Z,'” he grinned.

The conversation took an unexpected turn when the screen icon recounted a particularly memorable exchange with actor Jason Bateman that inadvertently fueled the nudist rumor. “And then I told Jason Bateman, our friend, this and he was like, ‘Yeah, but man, you fly naked on planes.’ And I was like, ‘What? What are you talking about?'” Leftovers alum explained.

“He said something like, ‘Yeah, when we flew to London — we flew to London together once — and he said something like, ‘I came to say goodnight and you were completely naked!'” Theroux recalled. “I wasn’t naked, I was in my boxers!” he clarified, to which Bateman, 55, replied, “Yeah, so clearly someone saw you and thought you were naked. So that’s the genesis of the story.”

While Theroux may enjoy lounging in his underwear high above the clouds, his recent public appearances have been anything but casual. On Wednesday, August 28, he was dressed to the nines on the red carpet at the premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice next to his fiancée, Nicole Brydon Bloom.