Jennifer Aniston takes on Joey Barton as she wades into Eni Aluko 'Fred and Rose West' row

Posted Tuesday, March 05, 2024 by Dailystar.co.uk

After she opened up about the effect of social media abuse, Jennifer Aniston has shown solidarity with ex-Chelsea footballer-turned-pundit Eni Aluko over her spat with Joey Barton

Eni Aluko has offered an insight into the social media abuse she has received (Image: BBC Radio 4/Why Do You Hate Me? podcast)

Jennifer Aniston showed solidarity with Eni Aluko in her social media row with Joey Barton.

The Friends star and Hollywood acting sensation reposted a video of the former Chelsea and England Lionesses ace talking about the abuse on social media and added a love heart emoji. Aluko, 37, has been lambasted online for a long time, but things took a particularly sinister twist when Barton labelled her and co-pundit Lucy Ward the "Fred and Rose West of football commentary" in January.

Aluko said she received even more abuse than usual on the back of those posts. After opening up on the trouble she has received, Aniston offered the pundit her full support online.

While speaking on 'BBC Radio 4's Why Do You Hate Me? podcast', Aluko said: "I started to get quite anxious because you get that feeling of being in a fishbowl. Everybody is sort of thinking, talking about you and reading the horrific stuff that's been said about you.

"I'm not going to leave my house. I'm going to disguise myself when I go and get milk from the supermarket. Why should I have to do that? But this is the real life impact of online abuse and nobody's stopping it."

Jennifer Aniston takes on Joey Barton as she wades into Eni Aluko 'Fred and Rose West' row
Aniston has lent Aluko her backing (Image: Getty Images)

Aniston reposted the video of Aluko's words, accompanying it with a love heart emoji to her 45million followers on Instagram. Aluko has also decided to file a libel claim against Barton over his posts.

She stated his tweets have emboldened lots of other smaller accounts to also send abuse to her pages. "It's an attempt to really project inferiority on women and on black people. Because it's not just specific to football, right", she added.

"This is a generic experience. You might have a black woman in a position of power and influence.

"The minute she gets something wrong, it confirms that she was never meant to be there in the first place."