FRIENDS’ 25th Anniversary: An Ode to the Show’s Worst Secret Keeper

[On Thursday, September 22, 1994, NBC debuted the pilot of FRIENDS. The sitcom, about a group of six 20-something friends, went on to become a pop culture touchstone. In honor of the milestone, we’re doing 25 Days of FRIENDS, looking back at the show in big and small ways.]

FRIENDS’ Monica was a lot of things: caring friend and wife; cleaning enthusiast; chef.

She was also a terrible, terrible keeper of secrets.

Part of it was Monica had arguably the deepest ties to everyone than practically anyone else. She was Ross’ sister, Chandler’s wife, Phoebe’s roommate, and Rachel’s longtime best friend. That meant the self-professed meddler was often in the middle of things, whether it was intentional or not.

Sometimes, Monica’s secret-blabbing paid off, especially for Phoebe: Monica warned her buddy that Gary was going to ask her to move in (which, admittedly, was ill-fated) and prompted Mike to fly to Barbados and fight for their relationship. (Definitely possible she should have made sure Mike was single.)

Other times, she tried to share things with mixed results. We never saw it on-screen, but viewers found out she told Joey about Rachel’s long-ago crush on him. She also told Phoebe that Joey had feelings for her (unaware his feelings were actually for Rachel), in a botched attempt to be a matchmaker.

And, of course, there were times she used her knowledge for not-great purposes. She utilized her knowledge to get back at Ross after learning his lie to their parents was why they didn’t like Chandler. She, Chandler, and Ross ended up in a triangle of shaming in an effort to one-up each other with secrets.

On the bright side? She at least told on herself, too…

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