Love lost. Jennifer Aniston made headlines last week when she spoke about her now-deceased first love, but the man's widow has a different story to tell.
Aniston, 45, first mentioned her late ex in an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, Jan. 7. "He was my first love — five years we were together," she said without naming the man, who later died from brain cancer. "He would have been the one. But I was 25, and I was stupid. He must have sent me Justin [Theroux] to make up for it all."
While there were few clues to the man's identity, his widow came forward to Inside Edition on Wednesday, Jan. 14. Mujah Maraini-Melehi addressed Aniston's revelation, and her relationship with her late husband, whose name was Daniel McDonald.
"Daniel and Jennifer had a relationship over 20 years ago, when they were both still very young. She made a life choice, but so did he," she said in a statement to the program. "I am sorry that Jennifer did not realize the treasure that was Daniel when she had the chance, long before he and I met and long before he died. It pains me to read the headlines that allude to her losing him tragically when in fact she was not present during his long and difficult illness."
Before his untimely death at the age of 46 in 2007, McDonald was a working TV, film, and Broadway actor. He made appearances in episodes of Sex and the City, All My Children, and Law & Order, was featured in 1998's Jaded and 1995's Let It Be Me, and starred in the stage productions of Steel Pier and High Society. He was also the father to two children, Fosco and Ondina, now adolescents, with Maraini-Melehi.
"Perhaps Daniel’s gift was to teach her how to love, and to appreciate what she has with [fiancé] Justin Theroux," Maraini-Melehi continued to Inside Edition of Aniston. "Those of us who knew Daniel well can assure you that he would not have approved of all this uninvited attention due to his past relationship to Jennifer. I lost my husband. My children lost their father."
