On “Friends,” Phoebe’s gay ice-dancer husband is Duncan. Duncan Sullivan, played by Steve Zahn, was Phoebe Buffay’s Canadian friend and legal husband before the series began.
Phoebe explains that she married Duncan to help him obtain a U.S. green card. She believed he was gay, and the marriage was presented as a practical arrangement rather than a conventional romance. The detail is revealed in season 2’s “The One with Phoebe’s Husband,” when the friends discover that Phoebe has been married for years.
Duncan returns to ask Phoebe for a divorce because he has realized that he is heterosexual and wants to marry another woman. Phoebe is initially hurt and confused, especially because she had developed feelings for him, but the episode treats the revelation as part of the show’s comic, unconventional backstory for her character.
A common mix-up is Mike Hannigan, Phoebe’s better-known future husband. Mike becomes Phoebe’s romantic partner much later and marries her in season 10; Duncan is her earlier husband and appears only in this season 2 storyline.