Three ‘Friends’ Love Interests That Fans Wish Never Happened
The six pals from Friends were an insular group. They spent most of their time with each other, and while they often dated outside of their core group of pals, very few of those significant others were liked by everyone else. In fact, you could say the only outside love interests that the pals connected with were Richard Burke and Pete Becker. Both dated Monica Geller during the earlier seasons of the series. Fans weren’t crazy about many of the characters’ outside love interests, either. Still, some are more hated than others. There are three significant love interests that many Friends fans think they could have lived without.
Ross’ ex, Emily Waltham, is among the most despised ‘Friends’ love interests
The single most hated Friends love interest is Emily Waltham. Emily was introduced during season 4 of the series when Rachel Green asked Ross to do her a favor. Fairly fresh off their breakup, Ross agreed to get in Rachel’s good graces. He and Emily ended up hitting it off, though. No one was crazy about Emily, to begin with, but Friends fans truly started to hate Emily after she asked Ross to cut Rachel out of his life after he accidentally said the wrong name at their wedding.
Sure, Emily had every right to feel threatened by Rachel, but the longstanding friendship was too important to see destroyed. To be fair, Emily was pretty much doomed from the start. She never seemed to have much personality, and Friends fans would have likely despised her even if her relationship with Ross had ended differently.
‘Friends’ fans hate that Kathy almost ruined Chandler and Joey’s friendship
Kathy was never given a last name during her time on Friends. Theoretically, that should have signaled that she was a forgettable character. She was anything but. Kathy started off dating Joey in season 4, and things seemed to be going well. Finally, it looked like Joey was ready to get serious with a girlfriend. Later, Chandler developed feelings for Kathy, and they kissed.
Kathy coming between Chandler and Joey would have been enough to make her a truly hated Friends love interest. Joey and Chandler, however, managed to patch things up, and Joey was even OK with Kathy and Chandler dating. Kathy became truly hateable when she then cheated on Chandler with a fellow actor named Nick. After she cheated on Chandler, viewers never heard from her again. Still, fans can’t get over the fact that Chandler risked his friendship with Joey over a woman who ultimately cheated on him.
‘Friends’ fans largely agree that Mike and Phoebe didn’t make any sense
It’s easy to see why Friends fans hated both Kathy and Emily Waltham. Both characters showed up and threatened to unravel a core relationship on the show. That was not the case with Mike Hannigan. Mike, Phoebe Buffay’s eventual husband, was introduced to fans during the show’s eighth season. While Mike and Phoebe had a long and slightly complicated relationship, fans of the series still don’t care for the character or, more specifically, him with Phoebe.
There was nothing inherently wrong with Mike. He was a pretty straightforward and average guy. Perhaps, that was the problem. Mike was far too boring and far too innocuous for the quirky and incredibly unique Phoebe. One Reddit user suggests that although Paul Rudd is an incredible actor, he wasn’t given much to go on with the role of Mike. In the end, he was too forgettable to be Phoebe’s forever love.
