Jennifer Aniston Learns Reese Witherspoon’s Real Name After 25 Years of Friendship
Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon have been friends for decades, but it turns out there was still a big secret hiding in plain sight.
During a recent appearance on LADbible’s game show “Do You Even Know Me?”, the Morning Show co-stars ended up learning something surprising about each other.
When it was Reese’s turn to quiz her friend, she asked Jennifer to guess her middle name. The choices were Jane, Jeanne, or Joan. Jennifer confidently picked Jane—but she was wrong. Reese corrected her with a smile: “It’s Jeanne.”
That’s when Reese decided to reveal even more. “That’s confusing. I’m Laura Jeanne,” she said, which left Jennifer completely stunned.
“Laura Jeanne?” Jennifer asked, laughing in disbelief. “Who’s Laura? What? Who the hell’s Laura? Wait, Laura Jeanne, like I’m not calling you that from now on.”
Reese explained that her real full name is Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon. She took Reese, her mother’s maiden name, and made it her stage name before starting her career in Hollywood back in 1991 with the film The Man in the Moon.
Jennifer compared it to another famous name change, asking, “Oh like Norma Jeanne?”—a nod to Marilyn Monroe’s real name, Norma Jeane Mortenson. Reese laughed and confirmed: “Yeah, like Laura Jeanne Reese.”
The two actresses, who first worked together when Reese played Jennifer’s little sister on Friends in the late 1990s, have stayed close ever since. Their friendship carried into present day with their starring roles on The Morning Show.
But the surprises didn’t stop with Reese’s big reveal. Reese then asked Jennifer what her own middle name was. Jennifer casually replied: “Joanna.”
That left Reese just as surprised. “I was today years old when I learned that,” she joked, before asking, “Does anybody call you J.J.?” Jennifer quickly said no, but Reese laughed and declared, “Well, I do now.”
Even after more than 25 years of friendship, Jennifer and Reese are still discovering new things about each other, and laughing the whole way through.
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