Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer Reveal They Were “Crushing Hard on Each Other” During ‘Friends’

The Friends reunion is finally out on HBO Max and Oh. My. God. was it worth the wait. Hugs, tears, guest stars, surprises, bloopers—Friends: The Reunion has everything. It even has one shocking reveal that will completely reshape how every single Friends fan looks at the show’s central romance. SPOILERS from this point on!

Towards the end of the special, host James Corden pops the question that we’ve all wanted the answer to: with a cast comprised of six hot, successful actors, who was hooking up? And then we get the reveal to end all reveals: Jennifer Aniston turns to David Schwimmer with a total, “Uh, so, you want to or should I?” look, and Friends canon is completely rewritten on the spot. Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer totally had the mutual hots for each other. David and Jen were almost an IRL Ross and Rachel.

“Yeah, the first season, we—I had a major crush on Jen,” said Schwimmer. Aniston added without hesitation: “It was reciprocal.”

The two never acted on it, though, because—just like with Ross and Rachel—there were always complications. “At some point, we were both crushing hard on each other,” said Schwimmer. “But it was like two ships passing because one of us was always in a relationship, so… And we never crossed that boundary. We respected that, and…”

And then Matt LeBlanc coughed out “bullshit” while taking a sip from his mug, causing everyone in the audience to freak the hell out. But he was just kidding! Aniston’s arm shoots up as she tries to set the record straight, and LeBlanc, laughing, says he’s just kidding.

But if this sounds like just an innocent, discreet crush, think again. It was, according to Aniston, something the two of them acknowledged in the early days of Friends, going so far as to insinuate that they should really kiss before their characters beat them to it. As Aniston put it, “I remember saying one time to David, ‘It’s going to be such a bummer if the first time you and I actually kiss is gonna be on national television.’ Sure enough…! First time we kissed was in that coffee shop. But we just channeled all of our adoration and love for each other into Ross and Rachel.”

No wonder that kiss out in front of Central Perk was so steamy! There was real, pent-up heat between these two!

The couple’s chemistry didn’t go unnoticed on set, either. While hanging out together on the reconstructed set, Schwimmer talked about how blatant his crush on Aniston was back in the beginning. “I thought back on the very first year or two, when we had breaks from rehearsal, like, there were moments when we would cuddle or something on the couch,” said Schwimmer. Aniston, talking over Schwimmer a bit, added “Well, we would spoon and fall asleep on the couch.” When Schwimmer wonders aloud how no one ever caught on to them, the rest of the cast is like, “LOL, we knew, duh.” Courteney Cox is even glad that the two didn’t hook up off-camera, because that could’ve very easily ruined the chemistry that so clearly worked on-camera and brought them 10 seasons of success.

So there you have it—a reveal that completely reframes how we will all watch the first few seasons of Friends. The cast are all great actors, duh, but in the case of Ross and Rachel, they weren’t acting.

Friends: The Reunion is now streaming on HBO Max.

Stream Friends: The Reunion on HBO Max