Here's How Brooke Shields Ex Andre Agassi Reacted After Watching Her Lick Joey’s Hands on 'Friends'

Brooke Shields recently opened up about her previous marriage and ex-partner, tennis star Andre Agassi in an interview with the New Yorker. The Blue Lagoon actress revealed that Agassi displayed toxic masculinity traits. Speaking about a shocking incident while filming the iconic finger-licking scene with Matt LeBlanc a.k.a Joey from Friends, she said, “Andre was in the audience supporting me, and he stormed out.

He said, ‘Everybody’s making fun of me. You made a fool of me by that behavior.’ I’m, like, ‘It’s comedy! What is the matter with you?’” Shields then went on to reveal that the legendary tennis player went back to their home and "smashed all of his trophies" in a fit of jealous rage. USA Today reports that Agassi “systematically smashed and destroyed every single trophy he had won, including Wimbledon and the US Open” 

Brooke explained further about her experience on the day of filming, “In the scene, I’m supposed to lick Joey’s fingers because they’re the hands of a genius, and I want to devour them, and I’m a nut. [Matt LeBlanc] was cute—he was, like, ‘I’ve washed my hands and they’re all clean.’ I was, like, ‘I had a mint!’”

In the 1996 cameo scene, the Endless Love actress, who played Joey Tribbiani’s stalker named Erika on the popular sitcom, was “supposed to lick Joey’s fingers” to express her craziness — but instead, it allegedly resulted in her ex-husband, Agassi erupting into a blind rage. Page Six reports that Brooke later discovered that Agassi's erratic and toxic behavior was caused due to crystal meth abuse. “I learned later that he was addicted to crystal meth at that point so that irrational behavior I’m sure had something to do with that,” she explained.

The former power couple was married from 1997 to 1999, and they walked down the aisle one year after the episode aired. They ended up getting divorced in 1999 due to the athlete’s battle with addiction.

Andre opened up about the incident in his 2009 autobiography, Open. “Of course, I’ve watched Brooke kiss men onstage before. […] This is different. This is over the line. I don’t pretend to know where the line is, but hand licking is definitely over it,” he wrote. He revealed that the couple had a heated argument over a phone call which ended in him smashing all his trophies one by one. “Hour later I open my eyes. I survey the damage as if someone else is responsible — and it’s true. It was someone else. The someone who does half the [expletive] I do.”

Brooke revealed that, initially, the producers didn’t want her to do “the crazy laugh and the licking of his fingers,” but after some convincing, they decided to put it back in — leading Shields to land her own sitcom, Suddenly Susan. “All of a sudden, the energy changed, and all these men in suits started coming into the studio,” she said of her performance. “The next day, I was asked if I wanted to do my own television show.”

Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 31, 2023. It has since been updated.