Jennifer Aniston during the recent Friends reunion

Jennifer Aniston admitted she had to walk out on filming of the Friends reunion after being reminded of the “hardest time” in her life.

The actor, who played Rachel Green on the hit sitcom, reunited with fellow stars Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry for a one-off TV special in May 2021, 17 years on from the show’s last episode in 2004.

Shortly after Friends ended, Jennifer split from husband Brad Pitt, before he embarked on a relationship with Mr & Mrs Smith co-star Angelina Jolie.

Speaking about returning to the Friends set to film the show, Jennifer alluded to her divorce as she spoke of the “jarring” feeling she had at being reminded of simpler times in her life.

Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt announced their split in January 2005
Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt announced their split in January 2005

She told The Hollywood Reporter: “We really did have so much fun together. I think we were just so naive walking into it, thinking, ‘How fun is this going to be? They’re putting the sets back together, exactly as they were.’ Then you get there and it’s like, ‘Oh right, I hadn’t thought about what was going on the last time I was actually here.’

“And it just took me by surprise because it was like, ‘Hi, past, remember me? Remember how that sucked? You thought everything was in front of you and life was going to be just gorgeous and then you went through maybe the hardest time in your life?’”

Revealing she had to walk off set at times, Jennifer continued: “It was all very jarring and, of course, you’ve got cameras everywhere and I’m already a little emotionally accessible, I guess you could say, so I had to walk out at certain points. I don’t know how they cut around it.

“That was what was jarring, that we all had an idea of what the future was going to be and we were going to go hunker down and focus on this or that and then it all just changed overnight, and that was it.

“But again, everything’s a blessing if you’re able to look at life’s ups and downs in that way. And if it all hadn’t happened, I would not be sitting here the woman that I am.”

The Friends cast reunited for a one-off special
The Friends cast reunited for a one-off special

Jennifer previously admitted the cast had found parts of the reunion “brutal”.

She told Rob Lowe on his podcast Literally!: “Going back there, it’s nostalgic in a way that’s kind of also a little melancholy, you know? Because a lot has changed and we have all gone down different roads, some easy and some not so easy for each of us.

“It was brutal, and also you can’t turn it off.”

She continued: “I think it really took us all down way harder than we anticipated.”