Fans will remember the time Julia Roberts made a guest appearance on Friends playing the role of Chandler Bing's romantic encounter, but some may not know that this led the actress and Matthew Perry to start a relationship of their own.
Matthew was one of the most loved characters from the hit American sitcom for his role as witty Chandler Bing but on Saturday, 28 October was tragically found dead at his Los Angeles home at age 54 after reportedly drowning in his hot tub. The date of his death also happens to be the birthday of his ex-girlfriend and Hollywood star Julia Roberts.
The former couple dated during the mid-1990s while they were filming for Julia's guest appearance on season two of Friends, but had become friends before. Matthew shared details of their relationship in his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
In his book, Matthew revealed that Julia had told Friends producers she would star in the show under the condition that she would be included in the storyline of Chandler Bing. In response to this Matthew decided to send Julia "three dozen red roses" and a card that read: "The only thing more exciting than the prospect of you doing the show is that I finally have an excuse to send you flowers."
This is where their relationship blossomed and during the early days in 1995, they would communicate over fax before they met in person. The actor said they used to send "hundreds" of faxes every day and described Julia's messages as "smart" which made him feel as though "she was placed on this planet to make the world smile".
"Thus began a three-month-long courtship by daily faxes. This was pre-internet, pre-cell phones – all our exchanges were done by fax. And there were many; hundreds", Matthew wrote in his memoir. Adding: "Three or four times a day I would sit by my fax machine and watch the piece of paper slowly revealing her next missive.
"The way she strung sentences together, the way she saw the world, the way she articulated her unique thoughts, all was so captivating." The actor went on to reveal that soon the faxes "veered romantic" which resulted in "five-hour" phone calls, at this point the pair still hadn't met in person.
Matthew wrote: "After that we could not be stopped: five-hour conversations here, four-hour conversations there. We were falling; I wasn't sure into what, but we were falling."
The couple went on to date for six months before they split in 1996. Matthew said they broke up because of his addiction struggles and feeling as though he wasn't "enough" for her.
The Friends star added: "Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me". Matthew said he felt that the actress was "slumming it" by dating him.
"Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable. So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts", he added.
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