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Celebrity

27th May 2021

Friends’ Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox are actually “related”

Niamh Maher

As distant as can be but still…

The wait is finally over to watch the Friends reunion and we couldn’t be happier. Fans of the classic show can watch the cast reunite on Sky and streaming service NOW and if you don’t have the fancy entertainment passes you can also watch it on Sky One at 8 pm this evening. Evening plans sorted!

With all the publicity surrounding the show of late, it’s no surprise that some interesting stories are coming out of the woodwork, including one that says Matthew Perry and Courtney Cox, who play beloved married couple Chandler and Monica on the iconic show, are in fact related.

According to the genealogy website MyHeritage, the co-stars are 11th cousins and share family members William Osbern Haskell III and Ellen Haskell. The Haskell’s were married and lived in England around 500 years ago and the connection is made through Cox’s mother, Courteney Copeland, and Perry’s father, John Bennett Perry.

Roi Mandel, the head of research at MyHeritage, told CNN: “We went into this line very deeply, we checked every name. We found a lot of records that support it, and we have confidence that they are related.”

Mandel added that if you go far enough back it’s not unusual to find connections and that both actors are also distantly related to Lady Gaga!

Does it take away from our love of the characters? Absolutely not.

Is it better if we don’t find out we’re all related to each other in some capacity? Probably.