Friends: 10 Most Heartbreaking Episodes
6. The One Hundredth (S5, Ep 3)
Oh, how this one really tugged at the heartstrings.
For an entire season, we had watched Phoebe's pregnancy as a surrogate for her brother and his wife's triplets, and while it was lovely to see her go through this process as a wonderful gesture for her family, we knew there was personal pain for her at the end of the journey.
The One Hundredth episode of the show covers Phoebe's emotions as she goes through labour, her initial relief and joy at giving birth, followed by her sad admittance that she has to give the babies up that she's carried in her belly for nine months.
The episode then climaxes in a moving scene in which, in a stellar performance for a sitcom from Lisa Kudrow, Phoebe gets her farewell with the babies. Whilst visibly holding back tears, she tells them how much she'll miss them and how she'll always try to be a good aunt for them as they go to their new home.
It's a real shame her relationship with the triplets didn't develop much beyond this episode, because it remains a Friends classic to this day.