A guest star from How I Met Your Mother season 1 has a special connection to a memorable Friends episode. The CBS sitcom tends to be compared to Friends considering both series focused on a close-knit group of young adults living in New York City. Anne Dudek's How I Met Your Mother cameo takes the similarity one step further because her character parallels her previous role on Friends.
Dudek portrayed Natalie, an ex-girlfriend of Ted Mosby's in How I Met Your Mother. Ted dated Natalie a few years prior to the events of the sitcom. He happened to dump her with a message on her answering machine, which she heard on her birthday. Ted started to feel nostalgic about his relationship with Natalie in the episode titled "Return of the Shirt." Natalie still had hurt feelings, but Ted succeeded in winning her over for a second chance. The pair dated for a few weeks before Ted realized she wasn't "the One." After breaking things off a second time, Ted learned that it was once again Natalie's birthday. Instead of yelling at him, Natalie used her martial arts skills to beat up Ted.
The actress made one more appearance in How I Met Your Mother, in the season 5 episode, "Say Cheese." The series also mentioned that Natalie eventually got married had three kids. Dudek was certainly no stranger to TV roles prior to her cameo on How I Met Your Mother. She had worked on major series like ER, Six Feet Under, Desperate Housewives, Charms, and Bones. The most relevant appearance Dudek made prior to her role as Natalie, however, was in the 2003 episode of Friends, since the character of Natalie went through the same situation as Dudek's character on Friends.
Anne Dudek Was Dumped The Same Way On Friends & HIMYM
In the Friends season 10 premiere, "The One After Joey and Rachel Kiss," Dudek played the role of Precious, the woman Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd) dated after his break-up with Phoebe. Mike learned that another man was planning to propose to Phoebe, so he traveled to Barbados to win her back. In doing so, he forgot to inform Precious or break up with her. Mike planned to meet with Precious, but Phoebe ended up doing the difficult explaining. When Mike arrived, Precious slapped him and left in a fit of rage. This entire confrontation occurred on her birthday, meaning Dudek played two different characters to be dumped on their special day.
Considering Dudek's role on How I Met Your Mother came less than two years after her Friends cameo, it's likely that the circumstances surrounding her breakup with Ted were influenced by what happened to Precious. This moment served as an amusing nod to her past gig, especially since it happened multiple times on the CBS sitcom. To make the connection even stronger, the actress who played Ted's mom, Virginia Mosby, was the same actress who portrayed Bitsy Hannigan, the mother of Mike in Friends. It looks like Cristine Rose needs to teach her TV sons how to respectfully break up with their girlfriends.