On the latest episode of his podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” O’Brien, 61,
reminisced with ex Lisa Kudrow, 60, about “Friends.” O’Brien and Kudrow were
romantically linked from 1988 to 1993, and the comedian recalled that Kudrow
was impressed by Matthew Perry in the early days of filming “Friends.” “You called me up, and you were raving about … ” O’Brien said, as Kudrow interrupted and said, “Matthew.” “Yes. And you were saying, he’s so funny … There was part of me that was jealous,” O’Brien confessed. “Like, I was OK. I make you laugh pretty hard, and you were like, ‘No, you don’t understand. This guy’s really [funny].’ “
O’Brien, who has been married to his wife, Liza Powel O’Brien, since 2002, clearly got over his jealousy, as he attended Kudrow’s 1995 wedding to French ad executive Michael Stern, to whom she’s still married. The former couple and now pals continued to reminisce about Perry, who died at 54 in October 2023 of accidental drowning due to a ketamine overdose.
Kudrow co-starred on the hit show from 1994 to 2004, along with Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc. All of the cast members attended Perry’s private funeral, and posted tributes to him on social media after his death. Aniston wrote a long emotional tribute calling Perry “brother,” and writing that she “talks” to him “every day,” while LeBlanc also called Perry brother and joked, “I guess you’re keeping the 20 bucks you owe me.”
Kudrow told O’Brien that she recently started watching the show again after Perry’s death. “I used to not be able to watch it at all,” she said.
“I mean, I’d see it on and be mildly interested, and then I’d see me and say, that’s enough of that. I can’t bear it. And then well, listen. After Matthew died, I could start watching the show again because it wasn’t about me. It had to do with him for some reason.”
She added, “And so I have started watching ‘Friends.’ Not started like Season 1 … But there are marathons on, and I have spent, at times, since he died all day long watching the show.”
