Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend Jim Curtis opens up on partial paralysis, chronic nerve damage which makes him walk with a limp now: ‘You don’t have to live as a victim’ |

Jennifer Aniston has been in a relationship with life coach and hypnotist Jim Curtis since 2025, and the couple has gradually become more open about their life together. Curtis, 50, is also an author and has recently released a book titled ‘The Book of Possibility’. In a rare appearance with Aniston, he spoke candidly about a deeply personal chapter of his life, being diagnosed with lesions on his spinal cord in his 20s, a condition that resulted in chronic nerve damage and partial paralysis.Aniston, 57, and Curtis made a rare joint appearance at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on Wednesday, September 2, where they attended an event celebrating Curtis’ new book. During the conversation, Curtis reflected on how his health struggles changed the way he viewed himself, his body and his life.Curtis, who now walks with a limp, described the diagnosis as an ultimate low. Recalling the night he first learned about his condition, he said he had been experiencing severe pain and spent hours in a New York City emergency room.As quoted by People, “I found myself in the hospital one night because I was having such severe pain in my body, and in a New York City emergency room, I was there for 13 hours, and it was maybe 2:00 am. and the nurse came, and I said, ‘Is the doctor going to see me? What are you working me up for?’ And she said, ‘A diagnosis right there,’” Curtis recounted. “And it was a really scary diagnosis.”Curtis said that looking up the diagnosis on Google while still in the hospital made the situation even more frightening. He recalled feeling his body “freeze and seize up without the fear of what Google had to say about this.”Despite the fear, he eventually tried to shift his mindset and tell himself, “Tomorrow, everything changes.” Curtis explained that learning to approach his condition differently was not an overnight process and required years of personal growth.“I’m not saying here that the doctor tells you to do something you should get up and leave,” Curtis said. “What I’m saying is that you don’t have to live as the victim. You don’t have to live in your suffering.”He further explained that accepting one’s struggles can eventually change the way they are experienced.Curtis said those struggles “can become your power as soon as you accept and love them”However, getting to that point of acceptance was difficult for him. Curtis admitted that he was once embarrassed about his medical condition and would give people a different explanation for his injury.“I would say I got into a motorcycle accident,” Curtis said. “I was so shameful that I had a medical condition. [I thought] I was broken in some way. I thought the motorcycle accident was at least a little macho.”Curtis said that he eventually managed to “overcome” those feelings through “self-acceptance and self-love”, although he believes the process could have been shorter.The discussion also turned towards life choices and finding one’s purpose. Aniston, who rarely speaks publicly about her relationship with Curtis, asked him a question about helping someone who feels trapped in an unfulfilling life.“If someone said to you, ‘I’m at this crossroads, and I am stuck, and I’m in this rat race of a life, and I’m fully invested, but I know that’s not my calling. My soul, my heart is screaming to do something else’. How would you help coach someone through that?”Curtis explained that he does not advise people to abruptly abandon their existing responsibilities in pursuit of a dream.“I’m not a proponent of ‘drop everything and leave,’” he replied. “That [acceptance] was 25 years in the making for me.”“There’s a reality of life too. You have rent to pay and medical bills to pay and kids to feed, all of your stuff,” he continued. “But I will say this: you don’t have to let fear stop you from living your dream. You can manifest at any time by placing your focus on the outcomes that you want.”

More about Jennifer Aniston and Jim Curtis’ Relationship

Aniston and Curtis were first romantically linked in July 2025. Their relationship has since attracted considerable attention, although the two have largely kept their personal lives away from the spotlight.In May, Curtis shared several pictures featuring Aniston, including a kissing selfie, while PEOPLE subsequently confirmed that the couple had celebrated their first anniversary. Curtis has also spoken about becoming part of Aniston’s close-knit circle of friends. During an appearance on The Jamie Kern Lima Show on August 31, he discussed the strong bond Aniston shares with her longtime friends, including fellow Friends star Courteney Cox. He described the group as “like family” and added, “I feel incredibly blessed to be part [of] and welcomed into that family.”