Sometimes it takes 25 years to learn a friend’s real name.
Jennifer Aniston, 56, was shocked when she discovered Reese Witherspoon’s actual name was Laura.
“The Morning Show” co-stars were appearing on an episode of LADbible’s “Do You Even Know Me?” when Whitherspoon, 49, was prompted to ask her longtime friend the “tricky” question.
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Witherspoon asked Aniston to guess “my real middle name” — giving three options between Jane, Jeanne or Joan.
Aniston incorrectly answered “Jane” as Witherspoon corrected her, saying, “It’s Jeanne” but then dropped a bombshell about her identity.
“That’s confusing. I’m Laura Jeanne,” the Louisiana native said.
“Laura Jeanne?” Aniston asked.
“That’s my real name, yeah,” the “Walk the Line” actress replied.
The “Friends” star couldn’t hide her stunned reaction as she processed her decades-long pal’s real identity through laughter.
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“Who’s Laura?” Aniston exclaimed. “What? Who the hell’s Laura? Wait, Laura Jeanne, like I’m not calling you that from now on.”
Witherspoon shortened her moniker to Reese — her mother’s maiden name — before she burst onto the acting scene and made her film debut in 1991, starring as Dani Trent in the coming-of-age film “The Man in the Moon.”
She also revealed that Reese was her middle name.
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“Oh like Norma Jeanne?” Aniston asked, seemingly referring to Marilyn Monroe’s real name, Norma Jeane Mortenson.
“Yeah, like Laura Jeanne Reese,” the mother of three responded.
But that added a little more confusion, as Aniston tried to piece together her co-star’s full name, which eventually the “Legally Blonde” star clarified was Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon.
In return, the “Big Little Lies” actress then asked Aniston what her middle name was.
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“Joanna,” the Emmy-winning actress replied.
“I was today years old [when I learned that,]” Witherspoon quipped and then asked, “Does anybody call you J.J.?”
Aniston mumbled “no.”
“Well, I do now,” Witherspoon joked as she broke the fourth wall and looked through the lens of the camera.
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The two actresses met when Witherspoon received a guest role in two episodes of the hit sitcom “Friends,” in which Aniston played a series lead as Rachel.
Witherspoon was cast as Jill Green, the sister of Rachel, during two episodes that aired in 2000.
They reunited as co-stars for “The Morning Show,” a drama about television news, which launched on Apple TV+ in 2019 and just debuted season 4.
