Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox post adorable throwback photos to celebrate Lisa Kudrow's birthday

It was basically a Friends reunion this weekend, when Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox posted hilarious throwback photos to celebrate pal Lisa Kudrow's 59th birthday

American actress Jennifer Aniston, American actress Courteney Cox and American actress Lisa Kudrow of the television comedy, Friend's circa 1995.
(Image credit: Ron Davis/Getty Images)

We always love a good Friends throwback photo, especially if it involves celebrating one of the cast member's birthdays.

This past weekend, Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox honored pal and co-star Lisa Kudrow, who recently opened up about feeling like a "mountain of a woman" while filming Friends, by posting a series of amazing photos, both old and current, on their respective Instagram accounts.

Jennifer shared a series of images beginning with a shot of her and Lisa, now 59, at the 2003 People's Choice Awards. The 53-year-old actor continued her Instagram story with what is now an iconic GIF of Lisa as her Friends "alter ego," Phoebe Buffet. In the clip, both Phoebe and Jennifer's character Rachel Green are seen jumping up and down while clapping their hands. The words "I love you" appeared under the GIF.

The post concluded with a photo of Jennifer kissing Lisa on the cheek. Jennifer captioned the shot with three emojis: a heart, a birthday cake and a kissy face.

Friends

(Image credit: NBC)

Courteney, who took on the role of Monica Gellar on Friends, celebrated Lisa with her own Instagram story. The 58-year-old star opted for a video of the two laughing together on a couch. She captioned the clip, "Happy birthday loot. You make everything better. And funnier!"

The former co-stars clearly had a variety of footage to choose from. After all, Friends ran on NBC for 10 years, from 1994 through 2004, airing a total of 236 episodes that folks still talk about now. 

The sitcom's fanbase is so large that the creators eventually agreed to film a Friends reunion special hosted by James Corden and produced by the show's original co-creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane. The special aired on HBO Max in May of 2021 and starred all former cast members, including Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer.

Friends

(Image credit: Gregg DeGuire / Stringer)

The stars of the sitcom had a lot to say both while on the special and following its airing. Jennifer in particular called the Friends reunion incredibly emotional, also revealing she found the need to walk off set for a bit at the time.

"I think we were just so naive walking into it, thinking, 'How fun is this going to be? They're putting the sets back together, exactly as they were,'" Jennifer said to The Hollywood Reporter late last year. "Then you get there and it's like, 'Oh right, I hadn't thought about what was going on the last time I was actually here.'"

She went to say, "It just took me by surprise because it was like, 'Hi, past, remember me? Remember how that sucked? You thought everything was in front of you and life was going to be just gorgeous and then you went through maybe the hardest time in your life?'"

That emotional connection to her fellow stars clearly carried on through the rest of Jennifer’s life: all six main Friends actor are still very close pals, as proven by their cute yearly birthday wishes for each other.

Anna Rahmanan

Anna Rahmanan is a New York-based writer and editor who covers culture, entertainment, food, fashion and travel news. Anna’s words have appeared on Time Out New York, the Huffington Post, Fortune, Forbes, Us Weekly, Bon Appetit and Brooklyn Magazine, among other outlets.