Jennifer Aniston and Sandra Bullock Both Dated Jimmy Cooper from ‘The O.C.’
· Thought Catalog
Updated 9 minutes ago, September 15, 2026
Jen frames it, “We’ve shared a boyfriend, that’s how much we love each other. We’ve been able to share all sorts of things.”
“I love you so much. I really do,” Aniston said in their conversation for Interview magazine. “The three words don’t actually feel like they live up to the amount that I feel for this woman.”
The “shared” boyfriend, added in an editorial bracket by the magazine, was Tate Donovan, but they dated him one after the other, not at the same time. Bullock met him on Love Potion No. 9, filmed around 1990, and they were together roughly four years, into the Speed era. She later said she “chased [him] like a dog” and called him one of the closest people she’d ever had in her life.
Aniston was set up with him by mutual friends in 1995, right as Friends exploded. They dated close to three years, lived together, and exchanged Irish commitment rings on their first anniversary. She once called him “one perfect guy,” “so real, so honest, so funny, so kind and considerate.”
The awkward footnote: while they were splitting in early 1998, Donovan was cast as Rachel’s Bloomingdale’s crush Joshua on Friends. He later called sharing scenes with her “painful and tough,” like sitting next to your ex in class.
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They’ve told this origin more than one way. In a 2020 Interview conversation, Bullock said Donovan “introduced” them and that they’d “both partook of this one human being,” placing it at an awards after-party. In this new sit-down, Aniston traces the closeness to the night at Gwyneth’s, where they “didn’t pipe down.” Two different rooms, one long friendship.
Donovan is the through-line between the two women that most people forget about. If the name doesn’t land, the résumé might: Jimmy Cooper on The O.C., Tom Shayes on Damages, Bob Anders in Argo, adult Hercules in the 1997 Disney movie, and Rachel’s crush on Friends. He’s been married to Corry Scheuerman since 2015.
Neither Aniston nor Bullock dwelled on any of it in the interview. Aniston moved straight on to “That’s how much we love each other,” and Bullock’s answer was just, “We do.”
Aniston, 57, framed it as proof of the bond: “We’ve been able to share all sorts of things.” The whole sit-down runs like that, two old friends closing on plans to go out for the night after Aniston blow-dries Bullock’s hair.
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