Jennifer Aniston was ENGAGED to her Friends co-star…

We find it hard to remember anyone Jennifer Aniston dated before Brad Pitt but it turns out that she did have a great love before him.

So much so that they were actually engaged to be married before they split in 1998 and she began dating Pitt soon afterward. 

The man in question – actor Tate Donovan.

Some people may be aware that Donovan played Rachel Green’s love interest ‘Joshua Burgin’ in series 4 of the smash hit TV series Friends.

But what you probably don’t know is that they were breaking up at the time that they were filming those episodes!

Can you imagine how awkward that must have been? Especially as, in the story arc, Jennifer’s character is desperate for Joshua to propose to her. 

And in case you’re thinking, ‘it was probably fine’, it wasn’t.

In a 2013 interview with Huff Post Live that’s recently resurfaced, Tate reveals just how awful it was!

He explained that he knew the cast quite well as he had visited the set many times during his relationship with Jennifer. 

However, just after their breakup, the producers asked if he wanted to do six episodes of the show and to give her her due, Jen didn’t stop it. 

She did wonder if it was an April Fool’s Joke at the time though…

Donovan said they thought it might be a therapeutic way for them to work through the breakup and might actually be good for them. 

It wasn’t.

‘It was horrible,’ he said, emphatically. ‘So tough. It was so tough, man. I remember just getting back to my dressing room and just weeping.’

Awww.

(Sidenote: Can I just say, my estimation of Jennifer Aniston’s acting skills has just gone through the roof!)

I also can’t help wishing that they’d stayed together in the first place and all this Brangelina/Justin Theroux nonsense could have been avoided.

Oh well. Sliding doors and all that…