'If Jen was your friend, would you really be urging her to get back with Brad Pitt?'

At the SAG Awards, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were spotted embracing behind the scenes.

They looked comfortable and happy, and greeted each other with a warm embrace.

Cue the tabloids.

OMG! Are Brad and Jen getting back together? 

Sigh.

The same hysteria ensued when it was announced that the pair both happened to be single at the same time – Twitter lost its mind.

Here are some of the tweets from the time.

If Brad Pitt and Jen Aniston end up back together now that they’re both single I will literally DIE. Like Angelina, girl bye ????????

— Reagan Walker (@reagandwalker) February 18, 2018

Omg what if Jen and Brad got back together?! BEST FULL CIRCLE PLOT TWIST EVER

— Adam Wolcott (@AdamWolcot) February 18, 2018

But it was this one that irritated me the most.

Somewhere, Jennifer Aniston is crafting her “Hey, let’s grab coffee and catch up” text to Brad Pitt. https://t.co/pXLGo7O4Mp

— Madeline Hill (@mad_hill) February 15, 2018

Sorry, what?

Why would Jen be the one begging to be reunited with her ex?

Let’s journey back, shall we?

Brad and Jen met in 1998 in the most Hollywood way possible – through their publicists – and married two years later.

But in 2004, big trouble was afoot when Brad signed on to make the movie Mr and Mrs Smith with Angelina Jolie.

Rumours of an affair were abound and while it was denied at the time, just a few months later, Brad and Jen separated.

Five nanoseconds after that, Brad and Ange became an official couple, and five nanoseconds after THAT, Brad and Ange were photographed at home for W Magazine, a shoot that led Jen (and the rest of us) to wonder whether Brad had ‘a sensitivity chip missing’.

LISTEN: Is it ever going to end well getting back together with an ex? The Mamamia Out Loud team discuss. Post continues after audio.

In an interview with the New York Times in 2008, Angelina seemed to confirm the couple’s relationship had begun while Brad was still married to Jen.

She spoke of her excitement that the couple’s six children (they’d had their biological children, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne, by then, and Brad had become an adoptive father to Maddox, Zahara and Pax) would one day get to see their parents acting together in Mr and Mrs Smith.

“Not a lot of people get to see a movie where their parents fell in love,” she said.

So. Brad probably cheated. He definitely, definitely left his wife for another woman. And he was certainly shameless and insensitive in the way he publicly flaunted his new romance.

Remind me again why we think Jennifer Aniston should get back together with this person?

While he settled into the cosy domestic bliss splashed across the pages of W, Jen was thrown to the tabloid wolves. The headlines were hurtful. She was portrayed as sad, bitter, lonely, past her best. Nothing without Brad!

So yeah. Sorry if I don’t start tweet-begging for a reunion.

I’ll frame it like this: if Jen was your friend (and let’s be honest, she kind of is) would you be urging her to get back together with this man?

“Hey Jen, remember that guy who publicly dumped you for another woman 15 years ago? Why don’t you send him a text? Why don’t you get back together with him?”

Please, let’s stop this nonsense right now.

Jennifer Aniston is not a character in a sitcom. Her life is not a storyline expertly crafted to entertain us. She’s not Rachel and Brad is not Ross. They are not each other’s lobster. 

It’s time we all start treating Jen like an autonomous individual instead of someone eternally linked to a man she broke up with well over a decade ago.

Do you think Jen should get back together with Brad? Tell us in the comments below.