Louise Redknapp Turned Down Olivia Williams’ Friends Role

Louise Redknapp has shed some light on claims that she was originally due to play a major part in Friends, but turned down the role.

Back in 2020, it was reported that the former Eternal star had at one point due to play Ross’ second wife, Emily, as part of a storyline that saw the cast of Friends shooting in London.

During an interview on Rylan Clark’s Radio 2 show over the weekend, the host asked Louise about reports she could have been “Mrs Gellar”, though she clarified that this was only “partially true”.

“It wasn’t to play Ross’ partner, it was to play Joey’s partner,” she said.

The Naked singer recalled: “It was actually, weirdly, I was on The Big Breakfast, and [Friends] was filming in London, and they just contacted me and said, ‘would you come in for an audition? There’s a role we’d love you to come in and go for’.

“Anyway, they said ‘we’d love you to do it’, I got the role, but I had a record out the same week, and I was due to do Top Of The Pops and everything else.”

She then admitted: “And I think I was a bit scared, if I’m honest.”

Louise was quoted as saying back in 2020: “To be on Top Of The Pops with that single meant a lot to me. Back in the day, Top Of The Pops was huge.”

She added: “You know, Top Of The Pops was really important at the time.”

When Rylan worked out that the role Louise was offered was one of Emily’s bridesmaids, who sleeps with Joey on Ross’ wedding night, he quipped: “Listen, babes, to be fair, where is she now?”

In fact, this character was eventually played by Olivia Williams, whose most recent work has included Dune: Prophecy, Netflix’s Monster and portraying the future Queen Camilla in The Crown.

Back in 2024, Olivia admitted that her work on Friends wasn’t quite all it was cracked up to be, describing her stint in the show as “harrowing”.

Friends recently arrived on HBO Max in the UK, after disappearing from Netflix at the end of last year.