Matthew Perry’s “Friends” co-stars always had his back as he dealt with drug and alcohol addition at the height of the show’s success. But last year, while promoting his memoir, he admitted it was “unfair” that he had to battle certain demons when the rest of the cast didn’t.
“You know, the thing that always makes me cry, and I hope that I don’t cry here. Is that it’s not fair,” Perry said during a conversation with CNN at the time.
“It’s not, it’s not fair that I had to go through this disease while the other five didn’t,” he continued. “They got everything that I got. But I had to fight this thing and still have to fight this thing.”
The “Fools Rush In” actor got choked up during the sit-down, which included an audience.
Holding back tears, he went on to give advice to those struggling also struggling with addiction.
“And so just to end this on a good note, there are people that will help you. And get their help,” he said. “It doesn’t go away. It never goes away.”
The “Friends” cast in “The One Where Ross and Rachel . . . You Know” in 1996. NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Matthew Perry (second from left) and his co-stars in “The One With the Thumb” in 1994. NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Courteney Cox (from left), Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry in “The One With the Red Sweater” in 2004. Danny Feld/NBCPerry was on a better path in recent years and while he promoted his memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
He initially overused Vicodin following a Jet Ski accident in 1997, and later completed a stint in rehab that same year.
David Schwimmer (from left), Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc in “The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs” in 2001. Getty Images
Matthew Perry at the GQ Men of the Year Party in West Hollywood in November 2022. Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
One of the many tributes Perry’s fans created for the late star on Nov. 3, 2023. APEX / MEGAHe’d go on to reveal that at one point he was taking 55 of the pills per day, causing his weight to drop to 128 pounds.
He wrote that he attended about 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, went to rehab 15 times and estimated that he spent around $9 million trying to get sober.
“I was on ‘Friends’ getting watched by 30 million people – and that’s why I can’t watch the show, cause I was brutally thin,” he told CNN last year.
Read more about Matthew Perry’s life and struggles
- ‘I had a 2 percent chance to live’: Matthew Perry opens up about addiction in new memoir
- Matthew Perry: I ‘was so dead inside’ during ‘Friends’ finale, I ‘felt nothing’
- Matthew Perry reveals what made him quit drugs: ‘It was pretty hellish’
- Matthew Perry reveals ‘Friends’ co-stars confronted him about sobriety
- Matthew Perry admits he ‘probably spent $9 million’ trying to get sober
“I didn’t watch the show, and haven’t watched the show, because I could go, ‘Drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine’. I could tell season by season by how I looked,” he added. “That’s why I don’t wanna watch it, because that’s what I see.”
The “Friends” cast in a 2006 photo shoot. NBCUniversal via Getty Images
David Schwimmer (from left), Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc in 2001. Getty ImagesPerry died at the age of 54 of an apparent drowning at his California home on Oct. 28, but his death is still under investigation.
Foul play is not suspected, but the coroner has ordered more tests, including for toxicology. His cause of death is still “deferred.”
His “Friends” co-stars — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer — and his relatives remembered him at what was presumed to be his funeral service on Friday at Forest Lawn Church of the Hills in Los Angeles.
