Julia Roberts has opened up about her past relationship with ex Matthew Perry one 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 October 28 aged 54 at his home in Los Angeles.
The pair met when the Oscar winner was cast to make 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.’
Julia Roberts has opened up about her past relationship with ex Matthew Perry one month after the actor’s heartbreaking death
‘They were all so welcoming to me as just a kind of a one-off character and it was a really fun time,’ she told the outlet of her experience on the hit sitcom.
‘The sudden passing of anybody so young is heartbreaking,’ she said.
‘I think that, you know, it just helps all of us just appreciate what we have and to keep going in a positive way as best we can.’
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, wowing the Pretty Woman actress before their first meeting.
‘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,”‘ he penned.
In the days before texting was common, the pair used another written form of communication to exchange messages with each other.
The pair met when the Oscar winner was cast to make 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 he sent her flowers to break the ice. ‘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,”‘ he penned
‘Three or four times a day I would sit by my fax machine and watch the piece of paper slowly revealing her next missive,’ he explained.
‘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.’
Looking back on the relationship the funnyman fondly recalled, ‘It was like she was placed on this planet to make the world smile, and now, in particular, me. I was grinning like some 15-year-old on his first date.’
By the time the Something to Talk About star had 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 interfered with their happiness.
Two months later, I was single,’ he wrote.
‘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,’ the beloved star wrote.
‘Instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts,’ he admitted.
Matthew said his insecurities lead him to break up with Julia
‘She might have considered herself slumming it with a TV guy, and TV guy was now breaking up with her. I can’t begin to describe the look of confusion on her face.’
Julia’s latest film has an homage to Friends running through it.
‘It’s beautiful he could sort of be honored in that way, or the show sort of be honored, coincidentally, at this time,’ her co-star Mahershala Ali said.
‘It’s kinda nice that it has a little space in there.’
Leave The World Behind is playing in theaters and will begin streaming on Netflix beginning December 8
