Over the course of ten seasons, viewers learned a lot about the lives of the main characters from Friends, but some details don’t quite match. In Ross’ case, for example, his sexual partners and the loss of his virginity ended up creating not one but two plot holes. Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, Friends debuted on NBC in 1994 and came to an end in 2004. The series is still regarded as one of the best of all time and recently gained a new audience thanks to its time at Netflix (though now it’s waiting for its new home, HBO Max, to launch).
Friends followed the lives of a group of six young adults (Monica, Phoebe, Rachel, Chandler, Ross, and Joey) doing their best to juggle their social, professional, and personal lives along with everything adulthood threw their way, all this with New York City as main setting. Ten seasons was enough for viewers to get to know the main group very well, including their families, many sentimental partners, and some very personal details. Such is the case of Ross, who was very vocal about his sex life.
Ross was married three times, but his first wife, Carol, had a special place in his life as she was the mother of his son, Ben, and the first and only woman he was with before Rachel – or so he made everyone believe, as it was later revealed that he was with someone else before Carol, and the story of how he lost his virginity also created a plot hole.
Friends: How Ross’ Virginity Created Two Plot Holes
In the first seasons of Friends, Ross claimed that he lost his virginity to Carol, and that she was the only woman he had been with. He even remembered the day they slept together for the first time, and spent a whole episode (“The One With George Stephanopoulos”) sad about that particular anniversary. Monica is later seen comforting him, as she knew all about it. However, in the next episode (“The One With The East German Laundry Detergent”), Monica says that Ross never told her when he lost his virginity, even though in the previous episode she was comforting him over that anniversary.
Another plot hole related to Ross’ virginity involves Carol and a woman named Anita Altman. As mentioned above, Ross claimed that Carol was the one he lost his virginity to and the only woman he was with before Rachel. However, in season 8’s episode “The One With The Rumor”, it’s revealed that Ross had an encounter with Mrs. Altman, the 50-year-old librarian at his high school. Though the one about Monica not knowing can be justified by Ross not telling her right away, the one about Mrs. Altman is a bit more difficult to excuse. With everything that happened in Friends, it’s not surprising that the writers forgot about some details, but luckily, the two plot holes created by Ross’ sex life don’t really affect his overall arc.