Friends star shares regret about missing kiss from Carol and Susan’s wedding scene

The 1996 sitcom episode featured primetime TV’s first onscreen lesbian wedding

Friends star Jane Sibbett has reflected on her character Carol’s groundbreaking wedding to her wife Susan (Jessica Hecht), which made history as the first lesbian wedding to air on primetime TV.

In the 1996 episode, titled “The One with the Lesbian Wedding,” Ross’s (David Schwimmer) ex-wife Carol ties the knot with Susan, in a ceremony officiated by real-life LGBTQ+ activist Candace Gingrich.

During the brief wedding scene, the two women walk down the aisle before the officiant begins the ceremony. The scene then immediately cuts to their reception, skipping over the signature wedding kiss.

Speaking to People in a new interview about her time on the show, Sibbett admitted: “I wish that I could do more currently, I wish that I could have done more then.

“I wish we could have had our kiss because it’s beautiful to see a kiss,” she said.

Jane Sibbett (left) and Jessica Hecht (right) starred as lesbian couple Carol and Susan in 'Friends' (Warner Bros. Television)

She revealed that at the time, “I was doing the rounds on talk shows and having to go toe to toe with people who were thumping their bibles at me.”

“I was defending for context because I was raised in that world. I wasn’t raised in a judgmental world. I was raised in knowing why you believe what you believe. So I was ready to go. I was ready to go to battle for what I love.”

Sibbett, 62, who has since transitioned away from acting to a new career as an energy healer, revealed that she originally went out for Jennifer Aniston’s role of Rachel Green.

“I auditioned for Rachel originally, I left there and my agents and manager [were like], ‘They love you, they love you,’” the actor shared. “I said, ‘Did you tell ‘em I’m pregnant?’ So they went back and said, ‘We love Jane, we love her [but] no, the timing won’t work out for that character, but we’ll think [of her] for another one.’”

Carol first appeared in Friends in the ninth episode of the first season. She was the first wife of Ross, with whom he welcomed his first son, Ben, in season one’s penultimate episode.

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'Friends' star Jane Sibbett in Beverly Hills in 2007 (Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

She went on to make recurring appearances in 14 more episodes of the seminal sitcom.

Previously speaking about nearly landing the role of Rachel, Sibbett said in 2020: “I usually don’t tell people that because Jen… There’s no one who could’ve done it like Jen.”

Currently, Sibbet is working on a memoir about her newly discovered “gift” for healing.

“The gift has been here 10 years now,” she told People. “When I work with the dancing hands, it’s not me. It’s source energy coming through me, and so I just feel nothing but bliss and joy and love when I am in this state.”