Matthew Perry is reflecting on his short relationship with Julia Roberts and the reasons behind their split.
In his new book, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry remembers how he began dating Roberts after convincing the A-list actress to make a guest appearance on “Friends” in the late 1990s.
“Julia had been offered the post-Super Bowl episode in season 2 and she would only do the show if she could be in my story line,” writes Perry. “Let me say that again — she would only do the show if she could be in my story line. (Was I having a good year or what?) But first, I had to woo her.”
Perry goes on to reveal how he sent the “Pretty Woman” star “three dozen roses” and a note reading, “The only thing more exciting than the prospect of you doing the show is that I finally have an excuse to send you flowers.”
However, it seems Roberts favoured a more intellectual approach, as Perry recalls, “her reply was that if I adequately explained quantum physics to her, she’d agree to be on the show.”
He continues, “The following day, I sent her a paper all about wave-particle duality and the uncertainty principle and entanglement, and only some of it was metaphorical. Not only did Julia agree to do the show, but she also sent me a gift: bagels — lots and lots of bagels. Sure, why not? It was Julia f***ing Roberts.”
Perry and Roberts began dating shortly afterwards, but their relationship wasn’t to last.
“Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me,” Perry admits. “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.”
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On being the one to call time on their relationship, Perry adds, “Instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts. 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.”
