Is This FRIENDS Fan Theory The Reason Behind Ben’s Disappearance From The Sitcom?

For eagle-eyed viewers, and Friends enthusiasts, one thing that might have struck you as time went on is that Ross’ son Ben appeared a lot less frequently in the show as time went on. While he has a fairly prominent role in the first several seasons of Friends, he then suddenly disappears. While most people would put it down to the child actor’s own growing popularity (Cole Sprouse who played the role of Ben went on to find fame with The Suite Life of Zack & Cody), one fan has a very different take on the whole scenario. In a blog post dedicated to his theory, D. F. Lovett writes: ‘Ross has a son, Ben, who plays a fairly important role in the first several season of Friends. But then he disappears.  Which makes me wonder if it’s possible that Ross’s disturbing antics have caused him to lose custody of Ben?’ Now, granted Ross wasn’t the most stable character for a number of seasons. He did sleep with his student Elizabeth, became infatuated with his cousin (Denise Richards) and who could forget the sandwich incident… While we laughed at the comical genius of those episodes, Lovett argues that the erratic behaviour means Ross could have lost joint-custody of Ben and there was a sinister sub-plot to the whole show: ‘Friends was on for ten seasons, but Ben doesn’t show up in person after episode twelve of season eight. He’s only mentioned six times in the remaining fifty-four episodes after his last appearance. ‘But, most troubling, is that it’s during these remaining fifty-four episodes that Ross’s second child is born. Not only does Ben never meet his new half-sister on screen, but a meeting between the two of them is never even mentioned. We never learn about if Ben has met his sister, if he likes her, if he is a good older brother. We simply never see him again.’ It definitely puts the whole Ross situation into a whole new light… although we may just ignore this so we can continue to bulk watch one of our favourite show without comfort eating ice-cream. H/T Refinery29