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Lisa Kudrow's son used to call Jennifer Aniston 'mommy' on the 'Friends' set

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 6/1/21

Lisa Kudrow gushed over her son, Julian, during a recent visit to Conan.

The episode originally aired May 12, but Kudrow's revelations during the interview feel even more appropriate now that the world is re-obsessed with Friends following HBO Max finally releasing Friends: The Reunion last Thursday (May 27).

Kudrow welcomed Julian, her only child with husband Michel Stern, in 1998, and her pregnancy was worked into Friends by Phoebe acting as a surrogate for her half-brother's triplets. Julian was very young when he would visit the Friends set, but he was immediately drawn to Jennifer Aniston.

"He'd fly into her lap," Kudrow explained. "Well, she's a love bug, and that made sense, and I was always glad for anyone Julian felt love for and felt from. But then at home, like, she'd be on TV, and he'd go, 'Mommy!'"

As he got older, Julian wasn't as enthusiastic.

"I just know that he hasn't seen every episode," Kudrow said. "I know for a while in school people were watching it, and he kind of felt like he had to so that he could participate in what everyone else was watching. And he did really think that everybody else was very funny on the show."

The Emmy-winning actress added: "He was able to come to the reunion. ... And afterward, he came up to me and he just said, 'I don't know if this awkward or inappropriate—can I say that I'm really proud of you?'"

Kudrow recently showed how proud she was of him when he graduated from USC's School of Cinematic Arts in May:

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A post shared by Lisa Kudrow (@lisakudrow)

Kudrow also took to Instagram last week to share that she and Friends co-star David Schwimmer didn't waste much time after filming the reunion to spend time together again:

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A post shared by Lisa Kudrow (@lisakudrow)

Friends: The Reunion brought all six core cast members—Aniston, Kudrow, Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry—together for the first time at Stage 24 and just the second time overall since the iconic '90s sitcom wrapped in 2004.

The nearly two-hour special is available for streaming exclusively now on HBO Max.

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