Ross and Rachel from ‘Friends’ Nearly Hooked Up in Real Life

The most stunning revelation from the new Friends reunion has to be that the actors who played Ross and Rachel crushed hard on each other during Season 1.

David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston say as much during Friends: The Reunion on HBO Max. At the time, he would have been 27 years old and she 25. The on-again, off-again onscreen couple both wanted it in real life, too, and they said as much at the time.

"I remember saying at one point to David," Aniston shares (per the N.Y. Post), "'it’s going to be such a bummer if the first time you and I actually kiss is … on national television.’ Sure enough, the first time we kissed was in that coffee shop."

Well, technically it was at the entrance of the coffee shop, but who are we to argue? But was this as close as they'd get?

"The first season, I had a major crush on Jen," Schwimmer says. "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."

Co-star Matt LeBlanc says he and the castmates knew there was chemistry there — he even coughed out the word "bulls--t," but clarified he was kidding when the non-couple insisted that nothing ever happened. When pressed by James Corden, Ross and Rachel fessed up.

"There were moments we would cuddle on a couch," Schwimmer admits.

"We would spoon and fall asleep on the couch," Aniston adds. The Post points out that she married Brad Pitt several years later, but he was in her life during those early seasons. Schwimmer would hardly be the first guy to lose a girl to the hunky actor.

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