Joey Tribbiani might have been the serial dater on Friends, but Ross Geller had the most serious relationships out of the male characters. David Schwimmer portrayed the figure for all 10 seasons of the NBC sitcom while Matt LeBlanc played Joey. Along with Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Rachel Greene (Jennifer Aniston), and Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), Ross and Joey were keys to the long-running comedic series that followed a group of friends facing adulthood in New York City. As their lives were documented, so were their romantic relationships.
Seeing as Friends started when the characters were in their twenties, the series featured several major milestones including careers, marriages, and the birth of kids. The characters' respective love lives were often a focus of the show, specifically the pairings of leads like Ross and Rachel or Chandler and Monica. In addition, a multitude of short flings, failed relationships, and misadventures involving dating in NYC were also on display to present entertaining storylines.
As previously stated, Joey was the most promiscuous among the central six characters in Friends. According to the number of sexual partners calculated by a super fan (via Reddit), Joey had 51.5 encounters across 10 seasons whereas Ross came in second for male characters with 14. Unlike Joey, however, Ross had a history of marriage in that relationship record. In fact, Schwimmer's character married three separate times and endured three different divorces. The three women in those situations were Carol (his first wife and the mother of Ross' son, Ben), Emily, and Rachel. Ross, of course, ending up having a child with Rachel, and the two finally ended up together by the end of Friends. But before then, Ross went on to have several other memorable relationships with women.
Ross' Other Romantic Relationships In Friends
In addition to Ross' marriages, the character had a handful of serious girlfriends over the course of Friends. First, there was Julie, a grad school colleague he dated in season 2. Then came the formerly bald Bonnie, a young woman named Elizabeth with a disapproving father, a guest at Chandler and Monica's wedding named Mona, and Charlie, a paleontologist who had a history with Joey. While some weren't deemed fits in the eyes of Ross, sometimes his feelings for Rachel were what got in the way.
Aside from Ross' various girlfriends in the decade-long narrative presented in Friends, the character also had a handful of romantic encounters. In season 5, Ross had a brief fling with Chandler's ex-girlfriend Janice, but she broke up with him for being too whiny. The following season, Ross dated Rachel's younger sister, Jill, but that relationship ended before it truly started. There was also Cheryl, a woman Ross attempted to date before her unkept apartment became too much of a distraction. Last but not least, there was the infamous one-night stand with Chloe during Ross' "break" with Rachel in addition to a history of kissing Chandler's mom, Nora, and close friend, Phoebe, during a Friends flashback scene. Ross may have been a marrying man, but he had to date around a lot before he and Rachel sorted their feelings out.