Jennifer Aniston definitely got everyone’s attention when she cracked a joke about how she dealt with the end of her hit series “Friends” by deciding to “just end everything,” which she explained included divorcing then-husband Brad Pitt.
During the final episode of “The Ellen Show” Thursday, host Ellen DeGeneres asked the “Horrible Bosses” star about the end of NBC’s hit show “Friends,” which aired its final episode in 2004 after 10 seasons.
“Oh, where does 19 years go?” Aniston quipped in reference to DeGeneres’ 19 seasons on air, after the host noted that the 53-year-old actress had been on the show 20 times. “I don’t understand.”
DeGeneres then asked about the ending of Friends and how the actress dealt with it.
“Well, I got a divorce and went into therapy,” Aniston replied. “Oh! And then I did a movie called ‘The Break-Up.’ I just kinda leaned into the end. I just was like, ‘You know what, guys? Let’s make this a completely new chapter. Let’s just end everything and then start new.’ It worked great.”
Aniston and Pitt were married from 2000 to 2005. She went on to marry and divorce Justin Theroux. Pitt was later married to Angelina Jolie from 2014-2019 before their divorce was official.
“Now you and Portia, no, no,” she added, mentioning DeGeneres’ wife Portia de Rossi.
Aniston asked DeGeneres if she “had any ideas of what she wanted” to do next now that the show is over.
“No,” DeGeneres explained. “I know I want to just lay low for awhile. I wanna rest and then I will do something again. I don’t know what it is yet.”
Aniston then made a few suggestions as she explained that she would love to see DeGeneres go back and do stand-up. When she dropped the idea of DeGeneres doing some acting, however, the host seemed definitely less thrilled.
On DeGeneres’ final episode, clips of the host’s various entrances over the last 19 years on the air played. In her final monologue, she reflected on how much has changed since that first day, as The Daily Wire reported.
“When we started this show, I couldn’t say ‘gay’ on the show,” Ellen shared. “I was not allowed to say ‘gay.’ I said it at home a lot. ‘What are we having for our gay breakfast?’ Or ‘pass the gay salt.’ [Or] ‘Has anyone seen the gay remote?’ — things like that.”
“I couldn’t say we, because that implied that I was with someone,” she added. “Sure couldn’t say wife, that’s because it wasn’t legal for gay people to get married. And now I say wife all the time. Twenty five years ago they canceled my sitcom because they didn’t want a lesbian to be in primetime once a week. So I said, ‘Ok, I’ll be in daytime every day, how ’bout that?'”