10 Most Toxic Ross and Rachel Moments on Friends

This couple was behind the argument that coined the iconic line "We were on a break!"

If you haven't guessed by now, the pair in question is none other than Ross and Rachel.

Their on and off relationship started in the very beginning, with Ross having a very obvious crush on Rachel for the entire first season, and finally blossomed into a romance in season 2 when Rachel realized she felt the same way about him. The red flag at the start of this relationship was that Ross was already in a relationship which Julie, and left her to be with Rachel, whose feelings only seemed to come about seeing him with someone else. This was the start of a whole lot of on-again off-again love between the two.

The way Ross asks Rachel out in the beginning seemed sweet, however, in hindsight it is important to remember that she was in a vulnerable and confusing point in her life, having run away from her wedding and being cut off. These factors together can make Ross look somewhat like an opportunist or predator, making his move on Rachel knowing he had a better chance at that moment.

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The first problem with their relationship stemmed from Ross's insecurity. After Rachel starts a new job, Ross becomes jealous of her relationship with co-worker Mark. Ross slams the phone down during a conversation with Rachel in which she merely mentions Mark, and if this act of jealousy isn't a red flag enough, his apology is even worse. In what seems to be a grand romantic gesture, Ross sends over roses, gifts, and a giant card with a picture of his face, complete with a serenade about having a boyfriend to her office. It's undeniable that it is more than a gift, it's an attempt to make his presence known to Mark, and reveals Ross to be possessive and insecure.

Next, on a drunken night in Vegas, Ross and Rachel get married. After Rachel finds out she is understandably freaked out but Ross calms her down by telling her that they got an annulment.

This is a lie, not only were they still married but Ross had told Phoebe and sworn her to secrecy, pulling her into his lie and asking her to betray Rachel's trust. This is another strike against his character, this doesn't excuse the fact that when she finds out, Rachel retaliated and took a stab at his character by calling him a drug user and homosexual to a judge during annulment proceedings.

Ross's jealousy comes to light again later when he insists on getting rid of their male nanny, Sandy. His first issue with him is obviously that he is a man. Although Rachel adores Sandy and trusts him to take care of their daughter, Ross fights to get rid of him, with his reasoning being that he is too sensitive of a man. His treatment of Sandy from the beginning would leave a bad taste in viewers' mouths, and caused a lot of tension between him and Rachel.

Ross once again shows a toxic side to himself when he invades Rachel's privacy. The two were in no kind of romantic relationship when he saw her walking around naked in the privacy of her apartment. She was unaware that he could see her, and instead of calling to let her know that she was exposed, or looking away, he continues to watch her and concocts the idea in his mind that she wants him to come over. He eventually goes over and the two have a rather awkward confrontation over the misunderstanding.

Then there's the infamous, "We were on a break!" moment that is still a hot debate among fans. It has since been settled that the pair were in fact on a break, but the situation caused issues for the pair for a long time after the incident. Rachel asks for a break, and Ross ends up sleeping with a girl named Chloe, after hearing previously mentioned Mark in the background of a call with Rachel. This was another act by an insecure Ross to spite Rachel, which ended up backfiring on him later on.

Although Rachel doesn't want to be with Ross, she's not happy with him moving on either. After he starts dating Bonnie, she becomes jealous. She befriends her and convinces her to shave her head as she had done previously, knowing that Ross would be less attracted to her if she did this. She shaves her head and Ross calls Rachel out for instigating it. He and Bonnie don't last long after.

Some actions by the pair can be forgivable, but later on, they interfere selfishly in bigger aspects of each other's lives. A proclamation of love at the airport seemed to be a peak romantic moment in their relationship, however by Ross doing just that he asks Rachel not to leave to Paris to pursue her dream job, and she gets off the plane. The saying "If you love someone let them go" clearly didn't cross Ross's mind.

At this point, they've gone their separate ways and Ross is preparing to marry Emily. Instead of being happy for the pair, Rachel makes the decision to crash their wedding last minute and proclaim her love for Ross, sabotaging another one of his relationships. This is far from a grand gesture on her point, it was a toxic move to try and steal the moment from Ross and Emily, but she was hurting other people in the process.

Rachel and Ross are undeniably easy-to-love characters, however, the two only worked together as friends, anything more and they did nothing more than bring out the toxic, jealous sides to each other's characters, when they were together they brought each other, and the audience, more unhappiness than anything else.