Monica (Courteney Cox) was the chef and self-appointed hostess on Friends. She cared deeply for her friends and family, and did plenty of wonderful things for them. She was something of a Mother Hen, though she did have a tendency to be a little too bossy and controlling. She was also incredibly competitive, which sometimes led to her own downfall. These character flaws are part of the reason why the things on this list are even a thing. Monica, like every other human being, isn’t perfect. She may have some “greatest hits,” but here are 10 of the worst things she’s ever done.
Bet The Apartment
Engaging in a game against Joey and Chandler ends badly for Monica and Rachel. Turns out the boys know the girls better than the girls had anticipated, thus they lose the game, and with it, their apartment. Monica, being as competitive as she is, risked their spacious and clean apartment without consulting Rachel and later loses their mattresses too in an attempt to renegotiate with Chandler and Joey. Monica tried to clean up Joey’s and Chandler’s apartment to make it more livable for her and Rachel, but it came at a cost and the girls detested living there until they eventually took their apartment back with Phoebe’s help. Had Monica not bet the apartment, they never would’ve had to go through all that in the first place.
Dated Ethan
If anything, Monica’s experience with Ethan teaches us to be completely honest in any relationship, especially romantic ones. She lies about her age, but it turns out that Ethan has as well. Ethan turns out to be underage, only a senior in high school. It’s disturbing and icky, and though the two seemed happy together, it was still wrong on so many levels.
Monica should’ve been honest from the start, as well as Ethan, especially before they slept together. At least Monica realized how inappropriate their relationship was once the truth came out and did the right thing by breaking it off, but it doesn’t erase this relationship gone wrong from the list.
Went Out With Chip
It seemed like Monica was stabbing Rachel in the back when she agreed to go out with Chip. Knowing how badly Chip had treated Rachel when they were all in high school didn’t seem to mean as much to her as living out her fantasy of being the popular girl going out with the popular guy. Karma strikes and Monica’s date with Chip turns out to be terrible, so at least they didn’t go out again and she learned her lesson. Still, Monica should have respected Rachel’s wishes, or at least stood up for Rachel by not agreeing to go out on a date with a guy who had treated her best friend so horribly. Monica wasn’t showing much solidarity or respect in her friendship with Rachel on this occasion.
Harassed Her Maid
When Chandler and Monica get a new maid, Brenda, things get way out of hand. Monica gets paranoid and insists that Brenda is stealing from them, as Monica believes Brenda’s taken her bra and her jeans, and then has the audacity to wear them in front of Monica. Instead of asking Brenda directly if she’s seen Monica’s missing items or knows anything about them, Monica conducts her own investigation and takes it too far, leading Brenda to believe she’s a lesbian when all is said and done.
Monica even pulls poor Chandler into her kooky scheme. She’s lucky that Brenda quit and left it at that, considering all the harassment Monica subjected her to. Not to mention the fact that Monica tended to hover around Brenda, never quite trusting her to do the job right despite being impressed by her.
Bumped Ben’s Head
Monica accidentally bangs her nephew’s head while playing with him. She immediately feels terrible, but she should’ve been paying attention to where she was tossing Ben in the air. Any harder a hit and Ben could’ve had his first concussion. What makes it worse is that she tries to hide it from Ross. She should’ve just been honest and apologized from the start, but then again, we wouldn’t have the hilarious scene of her chasing Ross after he’d tricked her into thinking Ben was really hurt, ending with Ross hitting his own head. Karma in all its brilliance.
Severed Chandler’s Toe
Monica may not have meant to take things this far, but it’s still one of the worst things she’s done. It all starts as a plot for revenge on Chandler for calling her “fat” at Thanksgiving the year before (in a 1980s flashback), and Monica doesn’t exactly use Rachel’s advice to act like everything in the room is a turn-on correctly.
Monica juggles macaroni, carrots and a knife, then once she loses the knife, she accidentally severs Chandler’s toe, definitely making that Thanksgiving one of the worst Thanksgivings she and Chandler have ever had.
Kissed Ross
Remember that horrifying episode where Ross finds out his first kiss with Rachel was really Monica, and how Monica discovers her first kiss ever was with Ross? Yeah, that’s beyond disturbing. Chandler had a point. He married into a family with dysfunction on a whole other level. Granted neither Ross nor Monica knew it was the other at the time, but come on. They still kissed, and neither bothered to make sure they were kissing the right person at the time.
Ran Back To Richard
Chandler is planning on proposing to Monica, but pretends to want nothing to do with marriage to throw her off and make the proposal a surprise. Monica believes him and winds up back in Richard’s arms for a brief time. Understandably she’d want some space to work things out on her own, but running back to an ex is never the answer, especially when said ex wants to get back together and when Monica was already vulnerable.
Given her and Chandler’s relationship, we find it hard to believe she’d go back to Richard so willingly or in such an emotionally fragile state, as she should know better. Plus, since she loved Chandler so much, it was a heck of a risk to go to Richard and put her relationship with Chandler on the line.
Didn’t Move With Chandler
When Chandler accidentally falls asleep in a meeting and winds up having to work out of Tulsa, Monica isn’t all that supportive. Understandably she’d need to process the information and let it soak in, then take the time to wrap things up in New York and move with her husband. Instead, Monica takes a great job opportunity in New York and Chandler is forced to commute back and forth to work and be with his wife. She never made any sacrifices to support him for her part, or at least commute to Tulsa herself to spare Chandler a flight or two. She picked her career over her husband and she seemed okay with the little time they spent together, so it’s definitely one of the worst things she’s ever done.
Flirted With Celebrities Even Though She’s Married
When the gang finds out that Joey’s been having a secret party on the roof for his fellow soap opera actors, they force Joey to allow them to come, promising to act cool (even though they do the exact opposite). Monica in particular has one of the actors sign her bra and shamelessly flirts, seemingly forgetting the fact that she’s married. Chandler isn’t around to witness any of it as he’s the only one that attends the play Joey was initially going to send them all to, otherwise Chandler surely would have been worried about his wife’s promiscuity. Faithfulness is important, but Monica didn’t seem to think so at this party.
