Double whammy: Not only did Jen lose her first love to a deadly brain tumor in 2007, just six years earlier she also lost her best friend to the same fate.
Just days after revealing Jennifer Aniston’s lost first love was actor Daniel McDonald, Daily Mail Online has learned the former Friend is harboring yet another heartbreak.
Not only did Jen lose her first love to a deadly brain tumor in 2007, just six years earlier she also lost her best friend to the same fate.
Jen and actress Kim Walker, who played nasty Heather Chandler in the classic 1988 cult film Heathers, were the best of friends. They met while attending the famous Fiorello La Guardia High School of the Performing Arts in New York City and traveled to LA together to try their luck at acting.
Jen won a slot as the sister of Ferris Bueller in the 1990s TV series of the same name and starred in the freaky film, Leprechaun, before going on to star as Rachel Green in Friends.
Kim booked roles on such popular TV series as Matlock, The Outsiders and Highway to Heaven before landing her big breakout role in Heathers, a dark comedy about a clique of girls, three of them named Heather, in a Ohio high school.
‘The girls were terribly close,’ says a mutual friend. ‘They shared an apartment and did everything together. And they both shared the same dream of becoming big Hollywood stars.
‘Although Kim was working regularly, her jobs tapered off in the late 1990s – just about the time she was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor.
‘When Kim told Jennifer she was sick and doctors didn’t give her long to live, Jennifer was beside herself. Kim was just 32, one year older than Jen, and it didn’t seem right that her friend should have to face something as devastating and final as this.
True love: Aniston with her current fiance Justin Theroux last night. She has previously said that she believes ex Daniel McDonald 'sent' Theroux to her as he looked out for her love life from beyond the grave
Gone too soon: Jen and Kim were terribly close, reveals a mutual friend. ‘They shared an apartment and did everything together. And they both shared the same dream of becoming big Hollywood stars'
‘Jennifer is the kind of person who can’t stand to see anyone suffer and it made her physically sick to think her friend was facing certain death from such a debilitating diagnosis and there was nothing she could do.
‘When Kim died, Jennifer was inconsolable,’ says the source. ‘She was so distraught she couldn’t even attend the memorial service for Kim. At the time there were some friends who didn’t understand how Jen could be a no-show at her best friend’s funeral, but you have to know Jen to know she just couldn’t handle it.
‘I remember she sent a huge bouquet of flowers, but couldn’t bring herself to face the reality of losing Kim by showing up at her memorial.’
Kim Walker (second from right) starred with, from left, Shannen Doherty, Lesanne Falk and Winona Ryder in Heathers.
In an interview with the New York Times as part of her aggressive push to grab an Oscar nomination for her role in the film Cake, Aniston said of McDonald 'He would have been "the one". But I was 25 and I was stupid'
The friend says how sadly ironic it was that just six years later, she got the news her first love, revealed by Daily Mail Online as Tony-nominated actor Daniel McDonald, passed away from the very same illness.
In an interview with the New York Times as part of her aggressive push to grab an Oscar nomination for her role in the film Cake, Aniston said of McDonald 'He would have been "the one". But I was 25 and I was stupid.'
McDonald's widow Mujah Maraini-Melehi has since lashed out at the actress. 'It pains me to read the headlines that allude to her losing him tragically when she was not present during his long and difficult illness.'
When Dan also died of brain cancer, it was a horrible reminder for Jen of Kim’s death,’ says the source. ‘The very fact two such important people in her young life passed from the very same thing was uncanny.
‘To this day Jen still thinks about both Daniel and Kim and holds them close to her heart. It’s no wonder Jen is slow to commit to relationships; when you lose two of the most important people in your life to brain tumors, it has to take a toll on your willingness to allow yourself to love.’
