According to Roberts, she and Perry’s first introduction was actually over the phone, not in person. “He called me up…out of the blue,” she said during a 1996 interview on The Late Show With David Letterman, after acknowledging that she was “dating this Matthew Perry guy.” As for their first date, she added, “I was very nervous because he’s clever and funny and handsome.”
The pair began dating in 1995 following Julia’s guest appearance on Friends as Susie Moss, Chandler Bing’s former classmate who came back into his life to seek revenge for a childhood prank that left her humiliated.
Roberts and Perry quickly hit it off, and in January 2021, former Friends writer Jeff Astrof recalled Julia being smitten by Matthew during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I remember standing with her on the sidelines. She kept saying, ‘Chandler’s so funny!’ And I’m like, ‘I wrote every one of those lines!’” he shared. “I don’t know if she fell in love with Matthew on the spot, but they soon started dating.
I felt like Cyrano [de Bergerac]. Like, Chandler is going to date Julia Roberts, and I’m going to go home to my horrible girlfriend. That’s my memory of that episode.”