Jennifer Aniston talks about deceased ''First Love,'' wedding planning with Justin Theroux and that giant engagement ring

Jennifer Aniston recalls in a new interview the devastating loss of a former boyfriend and first love, who died of a brain tumor and who she said "would have been the one."

The 45-year-old actress has been engaged to The Leftovers actor Justin Theroux for more than two years. She talked about both men in an interview wit The New York Times that was posted on Wednesday.

"He was my first love—five years we were together," she said, referring to her deceased boyfriend, who she did not name. "He would have been the one. But I was 25, and I was stupid. He must have sent me Justin to make up for it all."

Aniston was 25 the same year Friends premiered. She played Rachel Green on the NBC sitcom, which lasted for 10 seasons and helped her score major movie roles. She recently played a woman suffering from chronic pain, her grittiest role yet, in the film Cake. Her performance earned her Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations could also garner her an Oscar nod when the 2015 nominees are announced on Jan. 15.

Aniston and Theroux began dating in 2011. They got engaged in 2012. The New York Times quoted the actress and saying that the two are still figuring out what kind of wedding ceremony they want.

Theroux. now 43, proposed to her with a massive 8 or 9-carat diamond solitaire ring with a radiant-cut center diamond, worth an estimated $500,000.

"It's a rock, I know," she told The New York Times. "He rocked it up. It took me a while to get used to it. I'm not a diamond girl. I'm more Indian jewelry and stuff."

Aniston's ex-husband Brad Pitt, now 51, had proposed with a swirling halo-style diamond and platinum double-shank engagement ring from Italian jewelry designer Silvia Damian. The sparkler contained a diamond, smaller than the one she currently sports, surrounded by tiny ones and was also estimated to be worth $500,000 overall.

One of her first times Aniston wore the sparkler at a public event was in 1999, at a Sting concert. She showed off her new bling onstage to the rocker with Pitt by her side. The two wed a year later and divorced in 2005.

During the later years of their marriage, Aniston was often spotted wearing her engagement ring on her ring finger on her right hand and what appeared to be a wedding band on her left.