It wasn’t even Thursday when John Mayer gave fans the ultimate late 2008’s throwback. Somehow, John, 43, wound up on a Jennifer Aniston fan page (@jenniferanistonfaniston on Instagram), and “Liked” a Nov. 30 post featuring Jen riding a bicycle. “I just can’t with these pictures,” the fan page captioned the shots, and it seems John couldn’t, either. He hit LIKE, causing a ruckus on this small corner of the internet, “John Mayer liked,” one fan commented. “I NOOOOO,” replied the fan page. “WHY DID @johnmayer LIKE THIS?!?????” Others – apparently, like John was – were more enamored by the shots of the Friends star. They filled the comment pages with heart emojis and messages about how good Jennifer looked.
This wasn’t the first time that John and Jen had an Instagram moment in 2020. When John went on Instagram Live in April to reminisce about singer Bill Withers, Jen reacted to something heartfelt that John said, and flooded the chat with a string of “crying-laughing” emojis. It seems that these two have reached a point where they’re comfortable with each other – at least, on Instagram.
Considering how many people these two have dated – John’s been romantically linked to stars like Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Halsey, Minka Kelly, and Cameron Diaz, while Jennifer was briefly involved with Bradley Cooper and Gerard Butler before marrying Justin Theroux – it’s easy to forget that John and Jennifer were a thing, dating on-and-off from 2008 to 2009. It’s also easy to forget how bad the breakup was. After the paparazzi hounded John for days following the Aug. 2009 split, he went on a rant in which, according to Vogue, he said, “If you guys are going to…run every lie under the sun…have me as a man who ended a relationship.”
Jen brushed off this outburst when talking with Vogue. “He had to put that out there that he broke up with me. And especially because it’s me. It’s not just some girl he’s dating. I get it. We’re human. But I feel seriously protective of him and us. Trust me, you’ll never see that happen again from that man. And it doesn’t take away from the fact that he is a wonderful guy. We care about each other. It’s funny when you hit a place in a relationship, and you both realize, We maybe need to do something else, but you still really, really love each other. It’s painful. There was no malicious intent. I deeply, deeply care about him; we talk, we adore one another. And that’s where it is.”
After a breakup, John spoke with Playboy (per Marie Claire) about the split and insinuated that the 8-year-age gap between him and Jen was to blame. “In some ways, I wish I could be with her. But I can’t change the fact that I need to be 32,” he reportedly said. “One of the most significant differences between us was that I was tweeting. There was a rumor that I had been dumped because I was tweeting too much. That wasn’t it, but that was a big difference. The brunt of her success came before TMZ and Twitter. I think she’s still hoping it goes back to 1998. She saw my involvement in technology as courting distraction.”