Matthew Perry Dumped Julia Roberts Because He Was Scared She Would Leave Him

Matthew Perry Dumped Julia Roberts Because He Was Scared She Would Leave Him NBC

Matthew Perry has admitted that he ended his relationship with Julia Roberts in the ’90s because he worried she would leave him first. The “Friends” star shared the screen with Roberts on the hit NBC sitcom in the 1996 episode “The One After the Superbowl: Part 2.” However, they were also involved off-camera. In fact, it was their real-life chemistry that led her to agree to make a guest appearance on the show. Sadly, the romance between the actors didn’t last.

  1. Julia Roberts wanted her “Friends” character to have a romance with Matthew Perry’s Chandler. “I sent her three dozen red roses and the card 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,'” Perry told The Times. “Not only did Julia agree to do the show, but she also sent me a gift – bagels, lots and lots of bagels.”
  2. They were together for only three months. As Perry revealed in his upcoming autobiography, “Friends, Lovers, and the Terrible Big Thing,” they became involved in a “three-month courtship.” They would fax (!) each other daily while Roberts was filming in France, and when she got back, they were a proper couple. Aw, isn’t that sweet?!
  3. Matthew Perry was head over heels for Julia Roberts. As he revealed in the book, Perry said he’d sit by the fax machine to read the messages Roberts would send him “three or four times a day.” He continued: “I was so excited that some nights I would find myself out at some party sharing a flirtatious exchange with an attractive woman and cut the conversation short so I could race home and see if a new fax had arrived. Nine times out of ten, one had.”
  4. Unfortunately, Perry couldn’t handle the pressure. Only a few months later, Perry ended the relationship because he worried that Roberts would get rid of him first. “Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me. Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable,” he lamented. “So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts.” That’s so sad!
Jennifer Still is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. The managing editor of Bolde, she has bylines in Vanity Fair, Business Insider, The New York Times, Glamour, Bon Appetit, and many more. You can follow her on Twitter @jenniferlstill
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