During the middle of the fourth season of Friends, Ross began dating Rachel’s bosses niece, Emily. The two fell in love and eventually got married in what would be one of the most humiliating marriage ceremonies in television history. Emily was no Rachel, but no woman deserves to be called the wrong name at the alter by her hubby-to -be. Though the two try to work it out for a time, Ross refuses to give up his friendship with Rachel which is the final straw for Emily. Friends would continue on for nearly five more seasons after Emily’s departure, but what ever happened to actress Helen Baxendale who played Emily?
It turns out that Baxendale, who was also working on the critically acclaimed British television show Cold Feet while on Friends, had to be written out of Friends because she and her hubby were expecting their first child. She went on to have two more children, and decided to put her family first, only taking roles that would fit in with her busy life as a wife and mom. In 2012 Baxendale told Daily Mail UK, “Friends was great fun, but I was just there so they could make some funny jokes about England. And I was also expecting, and you have to be thin out in America.” She went on to say that she never regretted her decision for one second. Baxendale said, “Fame just didn’t fit in with my life. I don’t know how much would have come from staying in the States anyway. I didn’t want to live in America, when all my circumstances were leading me back to Britain. I don’t regret it for a minute.”
Still Baxendale ‘s focus on her family has not stopped her from acting. Since 2012, she’s starred on the BBC sitcom Cuckoo as a mother whose English daughter returns home from her study abroad married to an eccentric hippie American named Dale “Cuckoo” Ashbrick; played by Andy Samberg. Flip to see what Helen looks like now!
