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Julia Roberts Breaks Her Silence on Ex Matthew Perry

Author Laila Abuelhawa
Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts hug each other on the set of "Friends."

Julia Roberts has broken her silence on the “heartbreaking” death of her ex-boyfriend, Matthew Perry. The late Friends star died at the age of 54 due to an apparent drowning on October 28, which also happens to be Roberts’ birthday. “The sudden passing of anybody so young is heartbreaking,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “It just helps all of us just appreciate what we have and to keep going in a positive way as best we can.”

Roberts, 56, Perry became friendly in the ’90s, shortly before the Pretty Woman star guest appeared as a childhood classmate of Perry’s Chandler Bing in the season two episode, “The One After the Super Bowl.” She said of her experience on the beloved sitcom that the cast was all “so welcoming” to her as just a “one-off character.” The actress added that it was a fun time with “all good thoughts and feelings.” In Perry’s 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he revealed that Roberts only agreed to star in the hit NBC show if her character would somehow fit into Chandler Bing’s story arc. At the request of the show’s producer, Marta Kauffman, he further encouraged Roberts to appear on the show by sending her roses and a personal card. Perry courted her for three months via daily faxes of three or four a day. The end result was hundreds of faxes back and forth between the two.

RELATED: Matthew Perry 911 Dispatch Audio Mentions ‘Drowning’

According to Perry, he became “captivated” by what Roberts wrote to him. “The way she strung sentences together, the way she saw the world, the way she articulated her unique thoughts, all was so captivating,” he recalled. The faxes between the two actors “veered romantic” before morphing into “five-hour” phone calls. She then showed up on his doorstep one day. A few months later, the couple split as a result of his addiction issues making him feel like he was “not enough” for the actress. “Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me,” Perry wrote in his memoir. “I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unloveable. So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts.”

Following his romance with Roberts, Perry went on to date Lizzy Caplan for six years and was briefly engaged to literary manager Molly Hurwitz from 2020 to 2021.

'Friends': All Thanksgiving Episodes Ranked

Friends remains one of the biggest pop culture phenomenons ever. Among the show’s most beloved episodes are its Thanksgiving episodes.

So, what better time than now to rank these ten Friends episodes? If you’re checking this out after Thanksgiving, just make a sandwich with a “moist maker” and enjoy!

  • 10. The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs (Season 7, Episode 8)

    Compared to the other Thanksgiving episodes, “The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs” just doesn’t measure up, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great moments. Seeing Ross frustrated by Chandler’s 50 states game is super funny, and learning Chandler doesn’t like dogs is one of his more ridiculous quirks. Side note: Clunkers is an adorable name for a dog.

  • 9. The One With the List (Season 2, Episode 8)

    Following his magical first kiss with Rachel after her drunken “I am over you” phone call, Ross has to figure out whether or not to break up with his girlfriend, Julie. How does he figure that out? By making a pro/con list with Chandler which hits the fan as soon as Rachel sees it. Meanwhile, Monica gets a job at a firm and is tasked with coming up with Thanksgiving recipes for their new product, Mockolate, a chocolate substitute. A great episode, but it just lacks that Thanksgiving zest other episodes have. However, it does have Michael McKean guest-starring as Monica’s new boss and Phoebe’s song “Two of Them Kissed Last Night.”

  • 8.  The One With Rachel’s Other Sister (Season 9, Episode 8)

    Rachel’s sister, Amy (Christina Applegate), unexpectantly shows up and is rude to everyone. (Applegate won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance.) Joey forgets to show up to appear on a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with his fellow Days of Our Lives castmates. Monica is freaking out over using her wedding china during Thanksgiving dinner. There’s also drama around who would raise newly born Emma if both Ross and Rachel died. Basically, this episode is more stuffed with Thanksgiving hijinks than any turkey.

  • 7. The One Where Underdog Gets Away (Season 1, Episode 9)

    You never forget your first, and “The One Where Underdog Gets Away” helped set the bar for Friends Thanksgiving episodes to come. A series of random events lead to the gang spending the holiday together. (However, Joey’s reason involving becoming the poster boy for V.D. after a modeling gig gone wrong is the funniest.) We also learn Chandler’s disdain for the holiday stems from his parents announcing they were divorcing on Thanksgiving when he was a young boy. As a result, he doesn’t eat any traditional Thanksgiving food and opts for a feast of tomato soup, grilled cheese, and a large bag of Funyuns. That feast saves the day after dinner is ruined because everyone is locked out of Monica and Rachel’s apartment due to checking out the Underdog balloon that escaped from the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtD4fozYIgk

  • 6. The One With Chandler in a Box (Season 4, Episode 8)

    How do you win a friend back after kissing his girlfriend? You do some serious thinking inside a box, or at least that’s how Joey and Chandler attempt to resolve their issues. Monica provides some hilariously awkward moments trying to get involved with the son of her ex-boyfriend/ophthalmologist, Richard, after a fateful eye injury. We also learn Rachel always exchanges gifts she receives, which puts a wrench in the group determining their “Secret Santa” gift exchange. Plenty of great character moments in this Thanksgiving episode, especially from Chandler who still manages to bring the funny even though he’s hanging out in a box.

  • 5. The One With the Late Thanksgiving (Season 10, Episode 8)

    Monica doesn’t want to host Thanksgiving this year, but she is convinced into doing so by the rest of the group. How do they repay her? By being late, which is a massive Monica no-no. Joey and Ross were at a New York Rangers game, while Phoebe and Rachel were entering Emma in a baby beauty pageant. However, after plenty of arguing, Monica gets over everyone’s tardiness when she and Chandler, who are unable to conceive, receive a phone call from an adoption agency informing them they were getting a baby. A wonderful, feel-good ending to the final Friends Thanksgiving episode.

  • 4. The One With the Football (Season 3, Episode 9)

    Monica and Ross’ sibling rivalry is the centerpiece to this hilarious Thanksgiving episode that sees the group playing a game of three-on-three touch football. The Gellers used to play a football game every Thanksgiving, appropriately called “The Geller Bowl,” and the winner would get “The Geller Cup,” which was a Troll doll nailed to a piece of wood. After a violent “Geller Bowl 6,” Monica and Ross’ dad threw “The Geller Cup” in a nearby lake, and they weren’t allowed to play football ever again. Monica would later reveal she fished the trophy out of the lake and has been holding onto it for years, and it becomes the prize during the three-on-three game. Add to this madness Chandler and Joey attempting to win the same girl, and the entire episode is a prime example of why Friends was so popular.

  • 3. The One Where Ross Got High (Season 6, Episode 9)

    Chandler and Monica, who just moved in together, are hosting Thanksgiving, and Judy and Jack Geller are coming over, but they don’t care for Chandler and don’t know he’s moved in. Rachel, meanwhile, is tasked with making Thanksgiving dessert, but the pages for the recipe get stuck together in the magazine she’s referencing, and she ends up making an English trifle that also has shepherd’s pie ingredients. The episode culminates in an epic confession of various secrets that stun Judy and Jack, but they help them to final like Chandler. It’s basically a Thanksgiving trainwreck/miracle.

  • 2. The One With the Rumor (Season 8, Episode 9)

    Brad Pitt plays Will Colbert, a high school friend of Monica’s, who also struggled with his weight, that’s in New York City on business. After running into him and learning he’s away from home on Thanksgiving, she invites the now-thin Will to dinner. Will didn’t realize Rachel, who he hated in high school, was going to be there. Obviously, wackiness ensues including the reveal that Will started a rumor in high school that Rachel was intersex. This episode is easily one of the most publicized episodes in Friends history thanks to the appearance by Pitt, who was married to Jennifer Aniston at the time. Oh, and Joey’s Thanksgiving pants are classic!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS6UXbdpddQ

  • 1. The One With All the Thanksgivings (Season 5, Episode 8)

    “The One With All the Thanksgivings” is the definitive Friends Thanksgiving episode. The flashbacks, even the ones of Phoebe’s past lives, provide important backstory for the characters. We find out that a rude comment Chandler made about Monica’s weight during Thanksgiving 1987 was the reason why she lost so much weight, and that same comment is also the reason why Monica accidentally cut off Chandler’s toe during Thanksgiving 1988. At this point, Monica and Chandler, as a couple, is still very new and only Joey knows about them. Chandler doesn’t take the stories well, however, Monica makes it up to him by sticking her head inside a turkey (a reference to a flashback of Joey getting his head stuck in a turkey), and Chandler tells Monica he loves her for the first time, thus, sending us slowly down the road of one of the most important relationships in the entire series.

Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.

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