Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts briefly — and secretly! — dated in the mid-‘90s, the actor revealed in his October 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.

The actors’ short-lived romance began in 1995, when Perry — per Roberts’ ultimatum — convinced the Roberts to appear in a season 2 episode of the NBC hit.

“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,” the 17 Again star penned in his memoir. “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?)” he quipped. “But first, I had to woo her.”

As for how the Fools Rush In actor persuaded the Oscar winner to take the role in “The One After the Super Bowl,” he had to invoke some real brain power.

After sending Roberts three dozen roses with a note expressing his excitement at the possibility of her guest-starring on the series, “Her reply was that if I adequately explained quantum physics to her,” she’d agree to be on the show,” Perry wrote. “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.”

Though they were an item by the time Roberts filmed the fan-favorite Friends episode in 1996, Perry — who got candid about his struggles with mental health issues and substance abuse in his memoir — broke it off shortly after. “Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me,” he wrote in his memoir. “Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable. So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts.”

Keep scrolling to relive Perry and Roberts’ ‘90s-stolgic romance:

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The One With the Wooing

“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,” Perry wrote in his October 2022 memoir. “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.”

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The One With the Physics

Roberts, for her part, had one condition, Perry recalled. “Her reply was that if I adequately explained quantum physics to her, she’d agree to be on the show,” he remembered, adding, “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.”

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The One With the Flirting via Faxing

Former Friends writer Alexa Junge told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021 that “there was a lot of flirting over faxing” between the stars. “She was giving him these questionnaires like, ‘Why should I go out with you?’ And everyone in the writers’ room helped him explain to her why,” Junge recalled. “He could do pretty well without us, but there was no question we were on Team Matthew and trying to make it happen for him.”

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The One With the Bagels

“Not only did Julia agree to do the show, but she also sent me a gift: bagels — lots and lots of bagels,” Perry wrote. “I did let her in, both figuratively and literally, and a relationship began. We would already be a couple by the time we started filming the Friends Super Bowl episode.”

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The One With the Breakup

“Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me,” the Studio 30 on the Sunset Strip alum wrote. “Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable. So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts.”

Adding that he felt that Roberts was sure she was “slumming it” with him, the Whole Nine Yards star said, “I can’t begin to describe the look of confusion on her face.”

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The One With the Tribute

After Perry died in October 2023, Roberts reflected on his “heartbreaking” death.

“The sudden passing of anybody so young is heartbreaking. I think that, you know, it just helps all of us just appreciate what we have and to keep going in a positive way as best we can,” Roberts told Entertainment Tonight, adding that she has “all good thoughts and feelings” about her guest starring role on Friends. “They were all so welcoming to me as just a kind of one-off character and it was a really fun time.”