Jennifer Aniston does for ELLE, the resilient actress on humor, honesty, and her other ambition

Jennifer Aniston — who has yet to find love since her 2005 split from Brad Pitt — says she is aware of what’s been whispered behind her back, tells the September issue of Elle.

On being labeled a “lonely girl”: "I’m not going to ignore the pink elephant in the living room. It’s fine. I can take it. If I’m the emblem for ‘this is what it looks like to be the lonely girl getting on with her life,’ so be it."

On helping others unlucky in love: “I support women, men, anybody who is in a place that’s not their strongest and who is ready to push forward."

"If I’m the emblem for ‘this is what it looks like to be the lonely girl getting on with her life,’ so be it," says the actress, who was recently linked to Bradley Cooper following splits with Vince Vaughn, Paul Sculfor and John Mayer. "I can make fun of myself. And I’ll bring it up as long as the world is bringing it up."

She says she’s always used humor to get her through tough situations.

"I remember being 7 and asking my mom if I was as pretty as [my best friend] Monique," she recalls. "And with all the love in the world, my mom looked at me and said, ‘Oh, honey, you’re so funny.’ So, she doesn’t lie to me . . . She answers the question by not answering and instead tells me what she thinks is my greatest strength."  Her parents made each other laugh "like nobody’s business," she says. "I put a lot of value in that at a very young age."

But that hasn’t always easy: Her father, soap star John, left her mom, Nancy, when she was 9.

Says the actress, "My dad walking out and not seeing him for a year and not knowing where he was . . . Trying to understand, ‘Where did that person go?" Photos: Elle Magazine