Jennifer Aniston's ex-boyfriend says filming Friends scene was 'tough'

Jennifer Aniston's ex-boyfriend Tate Donovan has revealed that it was 'tough' playing Rachel Green's boyfriend Joshua on Friends.

The actor, now 58, made the revelation to Us Weekly, where he said that he was 'dying inside' as they filmed the scenes and described the whole thing as 'really tough'.

Donovan said that at the time of agreeing to appear on Friends, he thought it would 'be good to work through this breakup.'

He explained that while their romance on screen was blossoming, at the time, their real life relationship was falling apart.

Donovan said: "The only bummer was Jennifer and I were breaking up at the time.

"That was tricky to sort of act, and act like we are just meeting each other, and falling in love, or whatever, interested in each other, when we're sort of breaking up. That was just tough."

"It was just six episodes. I mean, only because we were breaking up. We were like: "Hey, can we not keep doing this? Cause this is really painful and tough.""

He explained that because of the show, a lot people mistakenly believe the pair met on the Friends set, when their relationship was actually over at this point.

"The people that know that we dated think that we met on Friends," Donovan said. "But in fact we had dated for two years before then, and it was over by the time we were on Friends together."

While he might have been 'dying inside' as they filmed the scenes, the actor said he ultimately enjoyed the time he spent on the show.

"It was good," he said. "It was really ultimately a great experience of how people can treat you really well, and you still do your job even though you're sort of dying inside."

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Aniston and Donovan first met way back in 1995 when mutual friends introduced them.

The actor described Donovan as the 'perfect guy' and said he was 'so real, so honest, so funny, so kind, and considerate.'

They went on to date for just a month before breaking it off as Donovan wasn't sure about being in another high profile relationship after dating Sandra Bullock.

However, he soon reconciled with Aniston and eventually things progressed to the point where they got engaged in 1998.

But it ultimately wasn't to be and they broke up shortly after.