‘Gilmore Girls’ Star Lauren Graham Almost Dated ‘Friends’ Star Matthew Perry
Best known for her role on Gilmore Girls, Lauren Graham insists she has a ton in common with her famed character, Lorelai Gilmore. Just like Lorelai, Graham was almost perpetually single until she met Peter Krause on the set of Parenthood. (Sadly, that relationship ended in June 2022 after 10 years of dating.)
Graham might not have had a leading man for the whole time she portrayed Lorelai, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t dating. Graham revealed she almost dated Friends star Matthew Perry.
Lauren Graham’s dating life mimicked Lorelai Gilmore’s dating life
Lorelai was almost perpetually single, save for a few short-lived relationships, until she finally got together with Luke Danes. In season 1, she dated Max Medina, and she almost married him in season 2. Then, Lorelai entered a bit of a dry spell before briefly dating Alex. Alex inexplicably disappeared.
In season 4, she was romantically involved with romantically involved with Jason Stiles and then got together with Luke. Rory Gilmore’s father, Christopher Hayden, was always in the background, too. Lorelai’s romantic life had a lot of false starts. Graham has suggested her own dating life was the same until 2010.
In her book Talking As Fast As I Can, Graham described a long-term relationship that ended just as her career took off. The Honolulu native never revealed who she was dating in those early years but admitted she had a bit of a dry spell during her time on Gilmore Girls. Graham dated here and there but remained mostly single.
Finally, in 2010, she reconnected with Krause, whom she had worked with on Caroline in the City. Somewhere in between all that, she had an almost-relationship with Matthew Perry.
Lauren Graham revealed that she sort of almost dated Matthew Perry
During her time on Gilmore Girls, Lauren Graham had several false starts when it came to relationships. According to her book, Talking as Fast as I Can, Matthew Perry was one of them. In the memoir, Graham explains that she met Perry at an event, and the two exchanged flirtations but never took it beyond that.
She said Perry turned into her “Friend Who I Almost But Never Exactly Dated or her FWIABNED.” Graham claims Perry was special to her, but she stopped short of explaining their connection or how the media linked them as a couple.
The media seems to make more of the alleged relationship than Graham or Perry
In the end, it doesn’t matter. Lauren Graham settled into domestic life with Krause for 10 years until their breakup in June 2022. Matthew Perry dated Lizzy Caplan for six years before calling it quits in 2012. Perry eventually got engaged to Molly Hurwitz, a literary manager, before breaking it off in June 2021. Still, the media made a huge deal of Perry and Graham’s supposed relationship.
According to Us Weekly, the pair dated in 2003 before breaking up but remained amicable. In 2008, several outlets reported that the former couple was spotted together, holding hands at a party. Those reports, according to Graham, were false. She insists they never actually dated, but it does sound like they may have engaged in years of flirtation before both moving on.
Matthew Perry died in late 2023
On October 28, 2023, Matthew Perry was found deceased in his hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home. Foul play is not expected to be the cause of death.
The 54-year-old’s passing shocked the world. While Perry played a lovable fictional character on TV, he openly discussed the troubles he went through in life, including addiction.
