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5 days ago · Matthew Perry’s fatal ketamine use under criminal investigation by LAPD, DEA. May 21, 2024. For most patients, their primary concern is whether ketamine is going to work and how long it will ...
Oct 31, 2023 · NBCUniversal via Getty Images. Why he got so lost in the first place — that’s what the memoir tries to puzzle out. As an infant, he was given phenobarbital, a highly addictive barbiturate. Could...
Oct 19, 2022 · Matthew Perry in Season 3 of “Friends” (left) and in Season 6. NBC His first rehab stint was at a facility in Minnesota, where he remained for 28 days, but the sobriety didn’t last.
- Overview
- 'Why was I the one?'
- Perry's recovery gave him a new purpose
- 'When I die, I don’t want “Friends” to be the first thing that’s mentioned'
Onscreen, Matthew Perry was the charming, heartwarming and hilarious Chandler Bing whom America came to adore. But behind the camera, he struggled with a much darker reality of crippling alcohol and opioid addiction and multiple stints in rehab.
In the final years of his life, he wanted to leave a legacy of inspiring and helping other addicts overcome life's most difficult hurdles.
Last year, Perry published a memoir, "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing," in which he detailed his relationship with alcohol, his addiction to Vicodin after a 1997 jet-ski accident and a near-death experience in 2019 after his colon burst as a result of his use of opioids.
The memoir starts with the prologue: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”
In the brutally honest pages, Perry shared vulnerable insight into his private life, from his fractured familial relationships and chasing his acting dreams to powering through his cycle of drug and alcohol abuse, leaving readers with an indelible message of hope and resilience.
“I never raised my hands and said, 'That’s enough, I can’t take it anymore, you win,'” he wrote. “… And because of that, I stand tall now, ready for whatever comes next.”
One part of the book details the near-death experience in 2019 in which Perry's colon burst because of his opioid use. He was left in a coma for two weeks and hospitalized for five months, and he had to use a colostomy bag.
During the health scare, he was placed on an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, which provides prolonged cardiac and respiratory support to the heart and lungs. Perry recalled that doctors told his family he had a “2% chance to live.”
He recounted in the book how his substance abuse issues started when he was 14 years old, being just 24 when he landed "Friends" and how skyrocketing to fame escalated his alcohol and drug abuse. At one point, according to the book, he took up to 55 pain pills a day. His weight fluctuated from 225 pounds to 128.
“I didn't watch the show and haven't watched the show, because I can go, 'drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine' — like I could tell season by season by how I looked,” he said, referring to the stage of addiction he was in during filming, in an interview on the “Q with Tom Power” podcast in Toronto in November.
In an interview with The New York Times in October 2022, he estimated: “I’ve probably spent $9 million or something trying to get sober.” (The book, released in November, puts the figure closer to $7 million.) He said at the time of the interview that he had been clean for 18 months.
Despite his pain and struggle, Perry said his recovery journey left him with a prevailing sense of duty to help others walking similar paths.
In 2013, Perry converted his mansion in Malibu, California, into a sober living house, which ran for two years. The same year, he received the Champion of Recovery award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He also became a spokesman for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
In the interview on the “Q with Tom Power” podcast last year to promote his memoir, Perry said he wanted to be remembered most for what he did for others.
"The best thing about me, bar none, is if somebody comes up to me and says: ‘I can’t stop drinking. Can you help me?’ I can say yes and follow up and do it," he said.
Perry spent the rest of his days doing just that.
Actor and comedian Hank Azaria, who also appeared on “Friends,” shared on Instagram that Perry helped him get sober.
“I’m a sober guy for 17 years. The night I went into AA, Matthew brought me in. The whole first year I was sober, we went to meetings together,” he said. “As a sober person, he was so caring and giving and wise, and he totally helped me get sober.”
- Marlene Lenthang
- Breaking News Reporter
Mar 13, 2024 · 13 March 2024. By Sam Cabral,BBC News. Getty Images. Matthew Perry 'felt like was beating' his addiction issues, his stepfather reveals in a new interview. Matthew Perry's stepfather...
Dec 15, 2023 · Famous Actors. Matthew Perry’s Lifelong Addiction Cost Him Three Years of Memories on Friends. In the 1990s, the actor seemed to have it all. But underneath, he was dealing with the greatest...
Nov 1, 2022 · Nov 1, 2022 5:00am PT. Matthew Perry’s Most Shocking Memoir Reveals: Salary Details, Bashing His Skull Open and One Sober ‘Friends’ Season. By Emily Longeretta. Matthew Perry has been...
