While many fans are devastated by the news that Jennifer Aniston and her husband of two years, Justin Theroux, have separated, other people are straight-up confused. Thanks to some similar sounding names, people think that Aniston broke up with Justin Trudeau. It's pretty unbelievable that anyone has been able to miss the press surrounding Aniston's love life for the past few years, but some people apparently really thought she was with the Canadian prime minister. Other baffled people of the internet knew that Aniston was married to the actor Theroux, but simply read headlines about the split too quickly and couldn't resist a name joke. Even though these men are quite different, perhaps the most amusing part of this whole situation is Theroux and Trudeau have more similarities than you may have realized. So let's break down how people could have mistaken Theroux for Trudeau.
Ever since she was on Friends, Aniston's love life has been a favorite topic in the media. When it came to her relationship to Theroux, the coverage had been slightly more restrained than in past — but that's only when compared to the coverage of her marriage to Brad Pitt. But Theroux is a famous actor and screenwriter in his own right. Sure, he's not Pitt levels of famous, but he has been in Hollywood since the '90s. He penned the screenplays for movies like Tropic Thunder, Iron Man 2, and Zoolander 2 and most recently starred in The Girl On The Train, The LEGO Ninjago Movie, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. He also just wrapped up his starring role as the dreamy Kevin Garvey in the mind-blowingly good HBO series The Leftovers.
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As for Trudeau, he's the dreamy prime minister of Canada. The young politician has captured the hearts of people in the U.S. for his affability and his liberal and progressive views in the era of Donald Trump. Beyond there being no evidence that Aniston has ever even met Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister is currently married to Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. They married in 2005 (the same year Aniston and Pitt divorced) and the couple has three children — Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien.
Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Even though the news of Aniston's separation is sad, the whole Theroux-Trudeau debacle is a hilarious silver lining. And, based on tweets, people have mistakenly thought Aniston was married to Trudeau long before her separation from Theroux was announced.
The confusion appears to solely come from the fact that the two Justins' names sound super similar and nothing else. But even if the people who thought Aniston was married to Trudeau didn't realize it, Theroux and Trudeau actually have a striking amount of similarities outside of their names. So looking past their names, their good looks, and their brown hair, here are all the other ways people could have confused these men.
They're The Same Age
Theroux and Trudeau were born in 1971, so they are both currently 46 years old. The actor is a few months older than the PM with Theroux's birthday on Aug. 10 and Trudeau's on Dec. 25 — making Trudeau a Christmas baby.
They Come From Famous Families
It turns out that writing is in Theroux's blood, since the New Zealand website Stuff noted that his uncle is travel writer Paul Theroux and his cousin Louis Theroux is a documentary filmmaker. The Daily Beast also reported that Theroux's mother Phyllis is a journalist with her work appearing in The New York Times. Through his mother's side, he's related to railroad magnate H.B. Hollins. Meanwhile, Trudeau is the second person in his family to lead Canada since his father Pierre was prime minister for 16 years.
They're Of French Canadian Descent
While you probably already knew — or could have guessed — Trudeau is French Canadian, with TIME reporting that those were the origins of his father Pierre. As The Toronto Star noted, Theroux's grandfather was French Canadian (thus, the last name). The actor also told the publication he still had family connections in Montreal and French Canada.
And They Speak French
Just because you have French Canadian descent doesn't necessarily mean you speak French. But The Toronto Star noted that Theroux broke into some French in the same story that mentioned his family background. Yet again, this fact is a bit more obvious for Trudeau since he is the prime minister of a bilingual country. In 2017, the CBC reported that Trudeau received some flak for answering questions in only French while in Quebec.
They Have Major Tattoos
Theroux's character Kevin had a ton of tattoos in The Leftovers and, as he told Vulture, that's because the actor really has all those tattoos and didn't want to spend hours in makeup covering them up. Trudeau is typically shown wearing long sleeves in public, but he has a significant tattoo on his left arm of the planet earth. As HuffPost reported, Trudeau said in a tweet that he got the tattoo when he was 23 years old.
They Have Been Objectified In The Media
In The Leftovers, there is a running gag about the size of Theroux's — shall I say? — bulge. Later, showrunner Damon Lindelof apologized for sexually harassing the actor, as The Hollywood Reporter noted. And even though he's a government official and not an actor, people are obsessed with how good-looking Trudeau is. The internet particularly loves to comment on how sexy he was when he was young.
They Are World Leaders
OK, this one is a joke since Theroux isn't actually a world leader. But in the final season of The Leftovers, his character's twin brother was the President of the United States in an alternate reality during the episode "The Most Powerful Man in the World (and His Identical Twin Brother)." Meanwhile, Trudeau is legitimately responsible for the world affairs of Canada.
While the people who had confused Trudeau and Theroux probably had no idea about all these connections, these similarities kind of prove that they weren't so far off base. So whomever Aniston was married to, she certainly had good taste.
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