Somewhere in the world, Tate Donovan‘s ears are ringing! Jennifer Aniston and Sandra Bullock discussed their mutual ex-boyfriend in a new interview.
“We were introduced by our former boyfriend. I say ‘our’ because you and I both partook of this one human being,” Bullock, who interviewed Aniston for her Interview cover story, began. “We both partook of Tate. …. Who was a very patient human being, given that he dated us both.”
After the 51-year-old Friends alum joked that Donovan, 56, “seems to have a type,” the 55-year-old Bird Box star quipped, he likes women who are “talented, funny, kind, introspective and generous.”
Aniston added “lovers of architecture” and “lovers of interior design.”
Donovan dated Bullock for three years after filming the 1992 film Love Potion No. 9. After the twosome, who were engaged, split, The O.C. star started seeing Aniston. The duo called it quits in 1998 — the same year that Donovan filmed a six-episode arc on Friends.
“I was just happy to be on the team. The only bummer was Jennifer and I were breaking up at the time,” Donovan recalled exclusively to Us Weekly in September 2018 about his stint on the sitcom. “And so that was tricky to sort of act, and act like we are 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. … The people that know that we dated think that we met on Friends. But in fact we had dated for two years before then, and it was over by the time we were on Friends together.”
While Bullock and Aniston revealed they have mutual friends, the Proposal star questioned why it took so long for the two women to “connect.”
“I think everything happens in its own time, and I think for whatever reason, life had to happen in both of our worlds the way it did,” the Morning Show star replied.
Bullock added that she wasn’t sure if her first impression of Aniston was on or offscreen.
“I was trying to think of my first impression of you, and, like almost everyone’s first impression of you, it was on the television. And I was trying to remember if that was the person who I got to meet,” Bullock explained. “I remember the first thing I thought of you was, ‘A beautiful woman who has extraordinary timing is almost impossible to find.’ You allowed yourself to look foolish, heartbroken, clumsy, like an idiot. I think that’s why everyone feels so comfortable in your presence. You said, ‘Yeah, I might look like this, but guess what? I have the same failings and insecurities you do.’ I remember thinking, ‘God, I hope she’s really like that. If she’s not, I’m going to be so bummed.’”
Sources previously told Us that Bullock and Aniston bonded in 2014 at a dinner party at Gwyneth Paltrow’s house.
“They got to talking and everything just really clicked,” one insider said. “They had similar outlooks on life and the same dry sense of humor. They bonded over where they were in life and what it was like to be a woman in Hollywood.”
