Friends: 10 Characters Rachel Should Have Been With (Other Than Ross)

Rachel Green is one of the main characters on the hit television sitcom Friends. Throughout the show, she had a will-they-won’t-they relationship with another main character, Ross Geller, with other relationships with other men interspersed in the mix. She ultimately ended up with Ross, which delighted dedicated viewers at the time but has since displeased and divided younger fans.

Unlike other fandoms, there is not a lot of debate among Friends fans over who Rachel should have ended up with instead, though there is a decent base of Joey-Rachel shippers. Generally, the Friends fan-base agrees that Rachel should have never got off the plane. However, had the plane not even been in the picture, here are ten people that Rachel should have been with over Ross.

10 Gunther

Gunther truly loved Rachel. He was patient with her when she worked at Central Perk and was terrible at her job. He would point out things she did wrong, sometimes remarking that she was bad at her job, but he never fired her. In fact, even after she quit, he never openly begrudged her for doing so.

He even tried looking out for her when she became merely a customer once more. The biggest example of this was when he found out that Ross had slept with someone else and told Rachel about it, not trusting Ross to do it himself.

9 Chandler Bing

While neither were really attracted to each other during the actual time in which the series took place, Chandler and Rachel were still good friends. Also, it is revealed through different flashbacks that Rachel and Chandler did share some attraction to each other when they were younger and even kissed at a college party.

During a flashback to a year before the friends became a group, it is revealed that Rachel met Chandler once again when Central Perk was still a bar. During this flashback, she even fantasized about hooking up with Chandler before marrying Barry, meaning that there was some potential for a relationship between the two.

8 Melissa Warburton

Melissa and Rachel were sorority sisters in college. One drunken night at a party, the two women made out. Since then, Melissa had harbored feelings for Rachel which were left unsaid until they reconnected in season seven. Melissa misunderstood Rachel’s obsession with the fact that no one believed that they had actually kissed and believed that Rachel reciprocated her feelings.

Perhaps Rachel did reciprocate Melissa’s feelings on some level and that is why it bothered her that no one, especially Phoebe, did not believe her. Even though the two women were drunk at the time, they clearly had chemistry that was unforgettable for either one of them.

7 Mike Hannigan

Mike Hannigan ultimately married Rachel’s friend Phoebe Buffay in season ten. However, he and Rachel have more in common than he and Phoebe. Both Mike and Rachel come from wealthy families and were essentially trust fund kids. They also realized that they weren’t living satisfying lives and left their wealthy lifestyles in order to pursue their passions. For Mike, it was playing piano and for Rachel, it was fashion.

The two could have easily bonded over these similar backgrounds. If it were not for the fact that Rachel was a good friend and would have never pursued someone Phoebe had an interest in, she and Mike would have been a great couple.

6 Paul Stevens

Paul Stevens was Rachel’s boyfriend when Ross was dating Paul’s daughter Elizabeth, who also happened to be Ross’s student. Paul and Ross did not get along but that did not stop Rachel from taking a liking to him. The two got along well and had great chemistry, in spite of there being a bit of an age difference.

The biggest issue the couple had was at first, Paul was very emotionally distant, something Rachel didn’t initially like. She eventually convinced him to open up and once he had, he could not stop bringing up past issues with which he had never dealt. If he and Rachel had found a way to handle the emotional outpour from Paul in a healthy way, the two would have been a great couple to last through the rest of the series.

5 Phoebe Buffay

Phoebe has the most ambiguous sexuality of the friend group, next to Chandler. She and Rachel shared a kiss in the same episode in which Melissa is introduced, “The One with Rachel’s Big Kiss.” Phoebe remarked that the kiss was not bad but also was not anything to write home about.

In spite of the obvious lack of physical chemistry, it is clear that the two women loved each other dearly. They were best friends for the better part of ten years, if not longer. They constantly looked out for each other, helping each other and making sure to create a safe space for each other when they could.

4 Monica Geller

Monica and Rachel were best friends since high school. They were very different during that time with Rachel being part of the popular crowd and Monica being more of an outcast. However, they were able to look past these differences and still be friends, just as good friends should.

Furthermore, after drifting apart and reconnecting as adults, they were able to cohabitate in the same space for most of the series run with very few issues. In fact, the two women’s opposing personalities complemented each other in a way that would have allowed for a great foundation for a relationship.

3 Tag Jones

Tag Jones was Rachel’s boyfriend for a relatively short period of time. They met when she was interviewing candidates for a personal assistant at Ralph Lauren, and Tag was one of the candidates. The two immediately hit it off and Rachel hired him solely because she was attracted to him.

While neither Rachel’s hiring of Tag and the start of their romantic relationship was the most kosher, the two worked well together until the age difference got in the way paired with the fact that he got nervous when she told him he was pregnant. Tag really liked Rachel, though, so it is possible that the two could have worked through both of these things and come out on the other side had he and Rachel been more willing to try.

2 Joey Tribbiani

Joey and Rachel truly were the best of friends. They lived with each other for a while during Rachel’s pregnancy and after Rachel had had Emma. Joey very quickly developed feelings for Rachel, learning how great she truly was, and Rachel eventually came to reciprocate those feelings.

Rachel and Joey tried dating for about a week only to find that they felt more comfortable as just friends and as roommates. Had they held on and tried for a little longer, though, they likely would have been a great couple. If Ross and Rachel were able to work through the initial weirdness of dating a friend, so could have Rachel and Joey.

1 Mark Robinson

Mark was one of Rachel’s coworkers at Bloomingdales in the early stages of her career. Mark and Rachel briefly dated, and they shared chemistry and got along really well. Mark was very supportive of Rachel’s career aspirations, more so than Ross ever was.

Mark’s friendship with Rachel made Ross incredibly jealous and unfortunately indirectly contributed to her relationship problems with Ross, but that was not Mark’s fault. Even though he later admitted to having feelings for Rachel, he was supportive of the fact that she was already in a relationship. Had things not gone sideways in later episodes, Mark and Rachel could have had such a healthy relationship and the fact that the two never dated more seriously is a missed opportunity.

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