Allison Janney on Never Having Kids or Getting Married

For much of her adult life, Allison Janney assumed marriage and motherhood were simply part of the script, the same one her own mother had followed. Now, at 66, the actress says she has come to terms with how differently her story actually unfolded.

Allison Janney, 66, has no regrets about the trajectory of her love life. The "Mom" alum has never married nor had children, and while she shared that she has no qualms about it, it was certainly something she once pursued.

In fact, it was something she envisioned in her future.

"I always thought I would get married, just because at the time I was growing up, that's what you did. That's what my mom did and I thought well I guess that's what I'll do, too," she told host Monica Lewinsky on her podcast "Reclaiming."

Janney recalled being a budding actress attending acting school in New York, where she had "long-term boyfriends." Like herself, none of them wanted children. However, during a four-year relationship in her mid-30s, she started to reconsider.

"That's when I thought maybe I should try to have kids now. And then it was apparent to me that this was not the man I wanted to have kids with," she shared. "So I was like, 'Okay, well, I guess that didn't happen.'"

Still, Janney said she felt relieved rather than disappointed.

"The way you feel in a relationship that you know is probably not the one and you're kind of in it and you don't know how to get out of it — that's the most lonely feeling in the world to be with someone and feel alone," she reflected. "Oh my God, that's awful. So, it didn't happen for me."

Despite always knowing she never wanted children, Janney found herself in a fertility specialist's office in her 40s anyway. "I knew I never wanted to have kids," she continued. "That's just something that I've always known."

Even so, she felt she should "just try," and the visit came with a blunt reality check about her odds of conceiving.

"The first I heard that I wouldn't be able to have a kid at 40-something was in this fertility doctor's office. She was like, 'The odds are not in your favor,'" she recalled, admitting she had assumed women could easily have children in their 50s.

The doctor's next question stuck with her just as much as the prognosis.

"And she said, 'Also, where is your partner?' And the guy that I was with, he didn't even come with me and I was like, 'I guess that is a sign, isn't it?'" she reflected.

The "West Wing" star has otherwise kept her romantic history fairly private. She dated actor Dennis Gagomiros from 1994 to 2001 and was later engaged to her "Our Very Own" co-star Richard Jenik, though the pair called off their two-year engagement in 2006.

Most recently, Janney was linked to production manager Philip Joncas, whom she met while filming 2013's "The Way Way Back." The couple split in 2017 after five years together.