Fans of Friends can certainly agree that Ross Gellar and Rachel Green‘s relationship was endgame. And while many also hoped that their real life counterparts, Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer, would also be each others “lobsters”, the pair never coupled up off-screen.
However, that never meant that they didn’t want to. Thanks to the Friends reunion special, the pair admitting to crushing on each other while filming.
“The first season I had a major crush on Jen,” Schwimmer revealed, after reunion host James Corden asked the cast whether the group were ever loved-up with one another. Prompting him to respond, Aniston went on to admit that “it was reciprocated.”
“I think at some point we were both crushing hard on each other, but it was like two ships passing because one of us was always in a relationship, and we never crossed that boundary,” Schwimmer continued, explaining that they “respected that.” But sadly for fans, their romance was never anything more than a friendship.
“I remember saying one time to David, ‘It’s gonna be such a bummer if the first time you and I actually kiss is going to be on national television’.”
However, while the world saw their romance bubble up on-screen, the pair also admitted that there were tender moments off camera too.
“I thought back on the very first year or two, you know, when we had breaks from rehearsal,” Schwimmer recalled. “There were moments we would cuddle on the couch,”
“I’m thinking, ‘How did everyone not know we were crushing on each other?’”
But while the pair thought their feelings for each other were undetectable, it turns out, the rest of the Friends gang—Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox—knew all along.
Admitting that their mutual attraction was “a situation that we couldn’t do anything about,” Schwimmer and Aniston’s confession is enough to keep Friends fans swooning until the next reunion in another 17 years.
