Matthew Perry struggled to work with Jennifer Aniston after she rejected him

The gossip from behind the scenes of Friends sounds even better than the actual show at this point, and now Matthew Perry has revealed how his crush on Jennifer Aniston affected him on set.

The pair worked together for a decade on the long-running sitcom between 1994 and 2004.

While the cast were friends both on and off screen, the 53-year-old sitcom star has shared details about the massive crush he once had on Aniston, also 53.

He wrote in his new memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: "I was immediately taken by her (how could I not be?) and liked her, and I got the sense she was intrigued, too – maybe it was going to be something."

“Back then I got two jobs in one day – one was Haywire, an America’s Funniest Home Videos-type show, and the other was a sitcom. So I called Jennifer and I said, ‘You’re the first person I wanted to tell this to!’”

In the decades that have passed since, The Odd Couple actor has had a lot of time to think about how things might have come across to Aniston, which he reflects on in his memoir.

“Looking back, it was clear that this made her think I liked her too much or in the wrong kind of way… and I only compounded the error by then asking her out.”

REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo.

Spoiler alert, the Morning Show star said no. “She declined (which made it very difficult to actually go out with her), but said that she’d love to be friends with me, and I compounded the compound by blurting, ‘We can’t be friends!’”

Clever.

While the two stars remained friends – and Friends – Perry’s feelings didn’t go away very easily.

“Fairly early in the making of Friends I realised that I was still crushing badly on Jennifer Aniston,” he admitted.

“Our hellos and goodbyes became awkward. And then I’d ask myself, ‘How long can I look at her? Is three seconds too long?'”

The Chandler actor said his feelings finally diminished once the cast’s fame level went through the roof. Plus, he also had crushes on Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox in later years.

AJ Pics / NBC / Alamy Stock Photo.

In other news, during the 2021 reunion special, Aniston and co-star David Schwimmer admitted they were mutually attracted to each other during filming but nothing ever came from it.

Schwimmer confessed: "The first season I had a major crush on Jen." Aniston added that the crush ‘was reciprocated.’

Unfortunately for all the Rachel and Ross shippers at home, Schwimmer explained: "It was like two ships passing because one of us was always in a relationship, and we never crossed that boundary."

Maybe what they say is true - friends shouldn’t date?