Julia Roberts reflects on her past relationship with ex Matthew Perry and says she has ‘all good thoughts and feelings’ about the late star – one month after his shock death aged 54
Julia Roberts has opened up about her past relationship with ex Matthew Perry a month after the actor's heartbreaking death.
The actress, 56, spoke about her memories of the Friends star while promoting her new film Leave the World Behind.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, she said she had “all good thoughts and feelings” about the star who died at his Los Angeles home on October 28 at the age of 54.
The pair met when the Oscar winner was cast for a guest appearance in Friends in 1996.
She played a childhood classmate of Chandler Bing in the episode titled “The One After the Super Bowl.”
Julia Roberts has opened up about her past relationship with ex Matthew Perry a month after the actor's heartbreaking death
“They were all so welcoming to me as a kind of one-off character and it was a really fun time,” she told the outlet of her experiences on the hit sitcom.
“The sudden death of someone so young is heartbreaking,” she said.
“I think it helps all of us to just appreciate what we have and move on as best we can in a positive way.”
What fans of the show may not have known at the time is that Julia and Matthew shared a three-month relationship.
The late actor wrote about it in his memoir Friends, Love and the Terrible Big Thing.
In the book, Matthew revealed he was a romantic at heart, which surprised the Pretty Woman actress before their first meeting.
“I sent her three dozen red roses and the card said, 'The only thing more exciting than the prospect of you doing the show is that I finally have an excuse to send you flowers,'” he wrote.
In the days before texting was common, the couple used another written form of communication to exchange messages with each other.
The pair met when the Oscar winner was cast in a guest appearance on Friends in 1996. She played a childhood classmate of Chandler Bing in the episode titled “The One After the Super Bowl.”
In his memoir, the actor revealed that he sent her flowers to break the ice. “I sent her three dozen red roses and the card said, 'The only thing more exciting than the prospect of you doing the show is that I finally have an excuse to send you flowers,'” he wrote.
“Three or four times a day, I would sit at my fax machine and watch the piece of paper slowly reveal her next mission,” he explained.
“I was so excited that some nights at a party I had a flirtatious conversation with an attractive woman and ended the conversation so I could run home to see if a new fax had arrived.”
Looking back on the relationship, the funnyman fondly recalled, “It was as if she had been put on this planet to make the world laugh, and now especially me. I was grinning like a fifteen-year-old on his first date.”
By the time the Something to Talk About star filmed her Friends episode, they were already a couple.
In an appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman, the Mary Reilly actress confirmed their relationship.
However, Matthew's insecurities stood in the way of their happiness.
Two months later I was single,” he wrote.
“Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I was constantly convinced she would break up with me. Why wouldn't she? I wasn't enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent and unloved,” the beloved star wrote.
“Rather than face the inevitable pain of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts,” he admitted.
Matthew said his insecurities led to him breaking up with Julia
“Maybe she thought she was dating a TV guy, and now the TV guy broke up with her. I can't describe the confusion on her face.'
Julia's latest film includes a tribute to Friends.
“It's wonderful that he can be honored in that way, or that the show, coincidentally, can be honored at this moment,” said her co-star Mahershala Ali.
'It's nice that there's a bit of space in it.'
Leave The World Behind is in theaters and will be released on Netflix from December 8