Jennifer Aniston’s relationship with Jim Curtis has made me confront one of my hang-ups. I just… don’t think I could ever date a hypnotist. I would be too worried that he would use his hypnotism powers on me within our relationship. I would absolutely go to a hypnotist for a problem – I’ve actually considered going to one for some time for a personal issue – and I believe in the power of hypnosis in general. I take it seriously! Which is why I could never date a hypnotist.

All of which to say… I guess Jennifer Aniston is built different. Jen has been dating Jim Curtis, a professional hypnotist and author, for months now. The first glimpse we had of their relationship was over the summer, when they were on vacation with Jason Bateman and his wife Amanda (two of Jen’s closest friends). The tabloids did some digging and found that Jen and Jim were interacting with each other on social media for months, so it’s possible that they’ve been seeing each other for a lot longer than anyone knew. In recent months, Jen has been spending more time in New York, where Jim is based. And now this new signal that Jen and Jim are for real: they’re really Instagram Official now! Jen posted the above image with the message: “Happy birthday my love” and “Cherished ❤️”.

I’ve seen some sites call this a “hard launch,” but I disagree. This relationship has unfolded differently than her previous, post-divorce relationships. It genuinely seems like they were quietly seeing each other for months, then they started getting pap’d together, and if you’ve been paying attention, they’ve been out and about together quite often in the past two months. The IG-Official thing feels like a more organic progression, at least to me.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.