When Rachel proposed to Joshua, he wasn't ready to make such a major decision so soon, especially after his divorce.
Rachel had a crush on Joshua Burgin (her client) while she worked at Bloomingdale and had tried to hint at it a few times. To make a long story short, Joshua had just received his divorce and was traumatized and unprepared for marriage when he met Rachel. As a result, when Rachel asked, he politely declined. Ross's marriage to Emily served as the inspiration for Rachel's marriage proposal.
Tate Donovan, who played Joshua, was actually dating Jennifer Aniston (Rachel) at the time, and the two split up just a week before he made his ‘Friends’ debut. As a result, it was challenging for them both to behave so nicely in front of one another. However, there were a few instances where both of them behaved strangely, and it was obvious that their real or personal lives were having an impact on their acting.
What happened between Rachel and Joshua Burgin?
Tate Donovan portrayed Joshua Burgin in Season 4. Joshua, whose ex-wife essentially stole all of his clothing during their divorce, becomes one of Rachel's clients after she is forced to switch departments and work as a personal buyer at Bloomingdale's. She becomes attracted to him but lacks the courage to approach him about a date. She gave him two tickets initially in an effort to entice him to a Knicks game, but she forgot to mention that one of them was for her, so he ended up going with his nephew.
After their encounter at Bloomingdale's, Joshua invited Rachel to the debut of a new nightclub he had been financing. Despite having already promised her boss that she would accompany his niece Emily Waltham to the opera, she agreed. However, Rachel had a terrible night and wasn't even able to see Joshua because she couldn't enter as the VIP list had mistakenly listed her name as Rachel Greep.
In her final scheme, Rachel pretended to be throwing Emily a bon voyage party when, in reality, she was plotting to seduce Joshua. By the end of the evening, she had embarrassed herself, foiled Ross' plans to date Emily, and revealed the truth to Joshua, who nonetheless rejected her due to his divorce. But eventually, he changed, and Rachel was able to spend time with him. Unfortunately, this didn't last long because Rachel wanted to continue the relationship because Ross and Emily were getting married.
Joshua politely declined the proposal of marriage, because, after his divorce he was a little afraid of it. Afterward, he did return to try his luck and speak with her, but Rachel utterly ruined her chance when she answered the door wearing a wedding dress and accidentally said "I do," leading him to believe she wouldn't accept "no." He never returned.
What happened between Tate Donovan and Jennifer Aniston?
According to People, mutual friends set up Tate Donovan and Jennifer Aniston's initial encounter in November 1995. According to the ‘Friends’ actress, her boyfriend is the "perfect guy," as she put it to the media outlet, describing him as "so real, so honest, so funny, so kind, and so considerate."
Three years into their relationship, Aniston and Donovan got engaged in 1998. Regrettably, the relationship between them ended soon after the engagement. It turns out that Joshua Burgin's six-episode plotline as Rachel Green's love interest on ‘Friends’ coincided with Donovan and Aniston's breakup in real life.
There were rumors that the reason Tate Donovan and Jennifer Aniston broke up was because he was envious of her professional success. She refuted that rumor, though, in a 1999 Rolling Stone interview. "That wasn't actually why we broke up. But because we didn't give the press anything, they made it up," she said. "Tate's and my breakup had nothing to do with ego battles, wanting babies, not wanting marriage—all that stuff. None of it was accurate."
Even though the jealousy allegations were baseless, the breakup wasn't any less awkward. The awkwardness of their split increased when Donovan was cast as Rachel's new boyfriend, Joshua Burgin, on Friends. The actor was hesitant to accept the offer, but he felt that working with Aniston might "be good to work through this breakup," as he said to HuffPost Live in 2013. Though, it didn’t turn out to be a good decision.
How was Tate Donovan’s experience on Friends?
After more than 20 years, Tate Donovan opened up about what it was like to work on Friends with Jennifer Aniston during their breakup. In 2018, he told Us Weekly, "I was just happy to be on the team." "The only bummer was that Jennifer and I were breaking up at the time. And so that was tricky to sort of act, and act like we're 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,'" The actor kept going. "The people that know that we dated think that we met on Friends. But in fact we had dated for more than two years before then, and it was over by the time we were on Friends together." Donovan added to HuffPost Live that the process of filming ‘Friends’ with Aniston proved to be much more challenging than he had anticipated. "It was horrible. It was so tough," he recalled. "I remember getting back to my dressing room and just weeping." The actor described his time on Friends as "great," despite the fact that he felt like he was "dying inside" at the time.
FAQs
Q. What is the net worth of Tate Donovan?
A. The net worth of Tate Donovan is estimated to be at $5 million, as of 2022.
Q. How did Rachel and Joshua split?
A. Following Ross and Emily's wedding, Rachel asked Joshua to marry her as a natural progression. But Joshua wasn't looking for marriage, especially so early in the dating process, and had recently gone through a contentious divorce.
Q. Was Tate and Jennifer's personal life a factor in how they appeared in Friends?
A. It didn't really affect or hinder their acting abilities, but since they are also people, their genuine emotions were visible on their faces, which made their chemistry feel strange.
