Highlights
- Courteney Cox was able to outsmart Oprah and keep her pregnancy a secret during the Friends cast interview, announcing it later on her own terms.
- The media created false headlines about the cast after their appearance on Oprah, causing uncomfortable scrutiny and rumors for Jennifer Aniston in particular.
- Cox wanted to keep her pregnancy a secret due to media hounding and tabloid scrutiny, eventually revealing it in a second interview with Oprah.
While Oprah Winfrey's show is remembered for her holiday specials where fans would be gifted all of Oprah's Favorite Things and for her famous gift of a car to everyone in the audience, Oprah was also a journalist first at heart. As such, regardless of the celebrity guests that she had on the show, they were not immune to her probing questions, no matter how invasive, or how cringe the moments on the show may be.
Not all guests were successful in their handling of Oprah's questioning, especially when the interviews took an inappropriate turn. Some even came away from the interview with fans scratching their heads at what they witnessed. One celebrity who proved to be able to outsmart Oprah was Courteney Cox. This is because not only was she wise to Oprah's objectives when guests came on the show, but she was also able to witness via the experiences of those close to her what happened when Oprah started to dig.
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Because of this, Cox had a good reason to keep a huge secret quiet during the Friends cast's interview, leaving no one wiser after her appearance and only breaking the news when Cox felt the time was right.
Oprah Sat Down With The Friends Cast After The Finale
The cast of Friends and Oprah sat down the day after the finale of the show aired. However, several months before that interview, Oprah, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, who almost lost her gig on the hit show after turning down the role of Rachel, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc had an interview while on the set of the hit show.
It was during this time that Oprah asked Aniston about her future plans for babies once Friends came to an end.
"When this is all done, do you want to go home and have babies?" Oprah asked.
"Yes," Aniston replied. "Gonna do that."
"Will you have them immediately? Oprah asked. "Like as soon as the show is finished?"
Aniston joked, "I'll have them here in the dressing room."
Once that interview aired, Aniston's narrative became her quest to have children. When that did not happen right away after the show concluded, tabloids followed her every move and critiqued her appearance consistently.
As such, the media was on baby watch when it came to Aniston, making life uncomfortable for both herself and her then-husband. This is because rumors swirled that there were problems with conceiving when in reality this was not the case.
"Everybody's saying you're having baby struggles," Oprah said.
Aniston replied, "I'm not having any baby struggles."
"Does it aggravate you, really, because I knew that would happen," Oprah stated. "Because the last time we were here, I said, 'Oh you want to go home and have babies?' and you said, 'Immediately.'"
"Immediately," Aniston said.
Oprah replied, "So then that becomes your story."
"Of course," Aniston said.
"That you're building a nursery," Oprah said. "Are you building a nursery?"
"No!" Aniston exclaimed.
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Perhaps, Cox saw the writing on the wall were she to admit her big secret, which was that she was pregnant during the first interview she had with Oprah when she was still filming Friends.
She could see the media following her every move after admitting to fertility issues. As such, it was not until months later that Cox announced that she and her then-husband, David Arquette were expecting.
While Cox was able to keep the media in the dark about her pregnancy, the false headlines still swirled about the entire cast after their appearance on Oprah, no matter how unbelievable the rumors were.
Oprah's Interview Spawned False Headlines About The Entire Cast
After the cast was on Oprah before Friends came to an end, headlines went into overdrive about the cast. While some of the headlines were not directly related to the six being on the show, others were.
But what was clear was that tabloids were willing to spin a story any way they could to make a buck off of the cast if possible.
"Isn't it amazing the things people can write about you that aren't true? " Oprah asked. "Are you amazed about it? What's the most amazing thing that's been written about you."
"Probably the pictures of me and one of my good friends who's gay and how I'm having an affair with him while my husband's going to the market," Kudrow answered.
Perry jumped in and said, "There was a story in one of the tabloids that I was dating a major celebrity that I've never met before on page four, and on page five, right there, was a huge story about how gay I was. ... Who's editing these things?"
These rumors about being gay while Friends was still being filmed could have been why Perry shut down a gay storyline that was pitched for Chandler Bing.
"According to the tabloids I've been engaged three times and I've never been engaged in my life," Schwimmer said, via the YouTube interview. "That's fun explaining that."
Cox chimed in, "There was one thing that you and I were fighting about each other."
"I was jealous that you were pregnant and I wasn't or something," Aniston said.
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But there was more for Aniston.
"The babies," Aniston stated. "The latest was that I was seeing a fertility specialist when I was having my tooth drilled for three hours in my dentist's office."
She went on to say, "One magazine is saying 'They're having a baby' and another one is 'Oh, they're in trouble.'"
With all the scrutiny about why Aniston was not pregnant, Cox wanted none of that. This is why it was not revealed until the second interview with Oprah months later, that Cox was indeed pregnant.
Courteney Cox Kept Her Pregnancy A Secret From Oprah Early On
Given how invested the media and tabloids were with the Friends cast, it is no wonder that Cox wanted to keep her pregnancy secret for a while. After it was announced, the tabloids surrounded her wherever she went.
"I get hounded a lot because of the baby," Cox replied, via the YouTube interview.
"Where they've been chasing me to the point where... There's this terrible show on... I shouldn't say the name because I don't want to give it publicity. It's really so bad that these young kids are trying to get information. They surround you in your car. You drive recklessly because you want to protect yourself."
This is likely why when asked if she still wanted to try to have babies the first time Cox appeared on Oprah, she did not reveal the pregnancy.
"Yes, I want to," Cox replied to Oprah's question about whether she wanted to have babies after Friends had wrapped, versus admitting she was pregnant.
Oprah said, "Want to, too?"
"Desperately," Cox replied.
Once the news was out, however, Cox was happy to talk about her pregnancy with Oprah. However, Cox still was not ready to spill all the news she knew.
"Do you feel changed already?" Oprah asked. "Do you feel changes in yourself?"
"No. I just now have an excuse for nesting," Cox replied. "I've been nesting my whole life. I'm a nester, my mom's a nester. Now my obsession is warranted."
"Do you have a name?" Oprah asked. "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"
"I know that," Cox said.
"Do you have names?" Oprah asked again.
"Well, you know I hope I know that," Cox said avoiding the question. "I'm not sure."
Being as popular as the Friends cast was, definitely made it difficult for them to go anywhere without paparazzi following them.
But they, like celebrities before and after them have had to learn to navigate the media, a tool that has to be navigated on a fine line to make sure a career stays well publicized while the private life does not suffer, which is difficult to do successfully.
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