Conan O’Brien Shares The 1 Thing That Made Him ‘Jealous’ Of Matthew Perry

Conan O’Brien still remembers how “jealous” he was of late “Friends” star Matthew Perry.

The comedian admitted as much on Monday’s episode of the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast and reminded guest Lisa Kudrow — who landed her part on “Friends” shortly after breaking up with O’Brien — that she couldn’t stop talking about her co-star.

“You started doing that show, and you called me up … and you were raving about Matthew, and you were saying, ‘He’s so funny,’ and there was part of me that was jealous,” O’Brien said. “I was [like], ‘OK, I make you laugh pretty hard.’”

“And you were like, ‘No, you don’t understand — this guy’s really [funny],’” he continued.

O’Brien and Kudrow started dating in 1988, when both were relatively unknown Hollywood talents. The couple ultimately broke up one year before “Friends” premiered in 1994, and despite his initial reaction, O’Brien had to agree with Kudrow’s assessment of Perry, who played the sarcastic Chandler Bing.

“I was watching him and going, ‘Yep,’” O’Brien said.

Kudrow, who played lovable ditz Phoebe Buffay on the show, assuaged her ex-boyfriend by calling O’Brien “one of the funniest people I know.”

“That’s just a fact,” she said. “But [Perry] was such a huge [star].”

Perry was found dead in October last year at 54 years old in what looked like an accidental drowning. An autopsy released in December found Perry had high levels of ketamine in his system at the time; the report listed the drug’s acute effects as his primary cause of death.

On O’Brien’s podcast, Kudrow shared that she started binge-watching “Friends” after Perry’s death.

“Well, I used to not be able to watch it at all … after Matthew died, I could start watching the show again because it wasn’t about me. It had to do with him,” she said, adding, “I have spent, at times since he died, all day long watching the show.”