One of the most memorable running gags in Friends were the marriages and divorces of Ross, but how many times was he married and why he got divorced? Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, Friends made its debut on NBC in 1994 and came to an end in 2004 after ten successful seasons. The series became a big hit, and it’s still regarded as one of the best sitcoms of all time, with a fanbase that keeps growing thanks to its time at Netflix and now at HBO Max.
Friends follows the lives of a group of six young adults in New York City and who do their best to juggle their social, personal, and professional lives, as well as everything adulthood throws their way. As years passed, Phoebe, Monica, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, and Ross became part of pop culture, along with their best one-liners and most memorable moments. Each character had at least one personal running gag, and Ross’ was how many times he got married and divorced. Each marriage, its backstory, and the subsequent divorce had different reasons and contexts, but that never stopped the rest of the group from making fun of them.
Though they all joked about Ross’ proclivity to marry and divorce (and how questionable his decisions were), Ross wasn’t married as many times as the series made it look. Here’s every time Ross was married and why he got divorced.
Carol Willick
When viewers met Ross in the pilot episode of Friends, he was going through his first divorce as his wife, Carol (Anita Barone and later Jane Sibbett), had come out as a lesbian and was moving in with her partner, Susan (Jessica Hecht), whom she met at the gym. It was later revealed that Carol was pregnant with Ross’ child, which is why they kept a good relationship after their divorce as they shared custody of Ben, and both Carol and Susan appeared on the series a couple more times.
Emily Waltham
While Rachel was trying to get Joshua to ask her out, she asked Ross for help when she accidentally agreed to take Emily (Helen Baxendale), her boss’ niece, to an event. Ross and Emily ended up bonding immediately, and they began dating. As Emily lived in London, their relationship was going to get complicated, and after spontaneously asking her to move in with him, Ross ended up proposing to her. Their wedding couldn’t even go on as planned, as Rachel arrived at the last second, and Ross, upon seeing her, said her name instead of Emily’s during his vows.
She later forgave him, but after seeing him with Rachel at the airport as they were about to take advantage of the honeymoon trip, she left him again. Emily then told Ross the only way she could get back with him was if he stopped being friends with Rachel, which he was unable to do, and thus they (finally) got a divorce.
Rachel Green
Ross had a crush on Rachel for years, and it wasn’t until she moved in with Monica at the beginning of the series that he finally made a move. Ross and Rachel’s relationship had a lot of ups and downs, and during a drunk night in Las Vegas, they got married – but they weren’t together at the time. After trying to get an annulment, mainly because Ross didn’t want to be known as “three divorces”, they ended up getting a divorce as they didn’t qualify for an annulment, though they both agreed that, had they married properly, they wouldn’t have divorced.
Did Ross & Rachel Marry Again After Friends Ended?
The series finale of Friends saw Ross and Rachel getting back together one more time. Though the series didn’t offer any type of flash-forward or hint at their lives post-Friends, the spin-off series Joey hinted at their future. In the first episode, Joey mentions that all his friends have married, settled down, and started families, so it’s understood that Ross and Rachel remarried at some point – and whether that was the definitive one for Ross or not is unknown.