Friends star’s unexpected new career after quitting Hollywood

She became a global star as Ross’ ex-wife Carol throughout the series – but Jane Sibbett’s life now is very, very different.

She may not have been one of the core six – but Jane Sibbett will forever be a very familiar face to Friends fans.

The actor played Carol Willick, Ross’ first wife and the mother of his son, Ben, throughout the series, and her on-screen same-sex wedding to Susan Bunch (Jessica Hecht) made history as the first of its kind on network television.

Susan and Carol's same-sex relationship made TV history on Friends.

Three decades later, Sibbett’s life is dramatically different from her Hollywood days.

The former actor, now 62, has largely stepped away from acting and now works as an energy healer, as she explained recently to People magazine.

She appeared frequently throughout the series.

“It’s fascinating because I’m working on the memoir of this whole situation, and one of my mentors had said, ‘Go back before the gift.’ The gift has been here 10 years now,” Sibbett said about her transition from acting to spirituality.

“When I work with the dancing hands, it’s not me. It’s source energy coming through me, and so I just feel nothing but bliss and joy and love when I am in this state.”

The It Takes Two star described how she had been living with her then-husband, Karl Fink, in Topanga, California, and hosting “goddess circles” for women when they had a calling to move to Hawaii in 2015.

With David Schwimmer, who played Ross.

Sibbett now works as an energy healer. Picture: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for MarVista Entertainment

There, they launched a production company together but the relationship ultimately broke down, leaving Sibbett “broken-hearted”, and seeking out a new path.

“He and I had been producing documentaries for healers who don’t call themselves healers, and one in particular, [Abdy Electriciteh]. My work with him suddenly became a part of this organisation, because I’m really collaborative, so I wanted everyone to be in on this,” she said.

The former Friends star on Instagram recently.

“[This healer] asked me to go from [working on] the documentaries to producing these live events, so it was a perfect synthesis of my belief in the gift of him [and] what he was doing and me coming off of Friends.

“I’m really a shy person, and so for me to step up into a crowd and introduce him all day long to all these people and have a different story, each and every time, I started to feel the way that source energy or God energy was moving through me.

“Then somebody said, ‘Hey, you were so good at that. I know somebody else who needs your help,’ and so I went to one person, and then I did the next person, and I did the next.”

Before long, the former actor found herself embracing her new chapter as an energy healer.

These days, as Sibbett told People, she’s also working on a memoir of her life, titled About Jane.

Originally published as Friends star’s unexpected new career after quitting Hollywood