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Who Played Emily Waltham on ‘Friends’? What Happened to Helen Baxendale After the Show
Throughout all 10 seasons of Friends, fans got to see the six main characters navigate new relationships and breakups. Emily Waltham began dating Ross Geller during season 4, a storyline that lasted all the way through season 5. Find out what happened to Helen Baxendale after portraying Emily on the sitcom.
Who Played Emily Waltham on ‘Friends’?
Helen joined Friends as Emily in 1998, appearing in 14 episodes before her departure in 1999. Her character was the niece of Mr. Waltham, Rachel Green’s boss at Bloomingdale’s. In one of the most memorable episodes of the entire franchise, Emily and Ross got married after almost calling off their nuptials. At the altar, Ross accidentally uttered his now-famous line, “I, Ross, take thee, Rachel…”
Unfortunately, the onscreen couple’s love did not survive. Their marriage ended in season 5 after Emily expressed that she did not trust Ross. Helen eventually exited the show as she prepared to take on a huge role in her personal life — motherhood.
Helen was pregnant with her first child while filming the series. The English actress was written out of the show as she went back to the U.K. to prepare for the arrival of her little one. Her eldest daughter, Nell Williams, with her partner, David L. Williams, was born in September 1998.
What Happened to Helen Baxendale After ‘Friends’?
After Friends, Helen and David welcomed two more children together, son Eric, born in 2001, and son Vincent, born in 2006. Nell followed in her mom’s footsteps in the acting world, appearing in Game of Thrones and The Revolting World of Stanley Brown.
Helen reflected on her time on Friends more than a decade after filming her last scene.
“I am very proud and delighted to have been in such an amazingly successful and international show,” the mom of three told The Mirror in February 2012. “It’s always a talking point and it was a very clever setup — even now young people especially seem to love it. But it doesn’t feel like part of my life at all now. I look upon it as a strange, surreal, little blip in my life, almost like a dream.”
In the early 2000s, Helen snagged several television and movie roles, including Dead by Monday, Flyfishing, Ordinary Decent Criminal and more. The performer earned a British Comedy Award nomination for her role as Rachel Bradley in the series Cold Feet. The show ended in 2003 and she did not return for the series revival in 2016.
From 2012 to 2019, Helen starred as Lorna Thompson on the British sitcom Cuckoo. She later joined the cast of the drama series Noughts + Crosses in 2020.
