Matthew Perry played Chandler Bing on the hit US series Friends. Last year, he said that Jennifer Aniston was the only co-star who talked to him about his problems when he talked about their special bond.
In what he thought was his “secret” fight with alcohol at the height of their fame, Jennifer Aniston sent Matthew Perry a four-word warning while they were still together on Friends.Perry was found dead at his home in Los Angeles on Saturday night, allegedly having drowned in his hot tub. He played Chandler Bing on the hit US sitcom.
Based on what police say, no drugs were found at the scene and there are no signs of foul play. Perry, who was 54 at the time, talked about his struggles with drug abuse during the height of his fame in the 2000s. He said last year that Aniston was the only celebrity who had talked to him about his drinking.
The actor remembered that the actress who played Rachel Green came up to him on set and said, “We know you’re drinking.”At the time I should have been the talk of the town, I was in a dark room meeting only drug dealers and by myself,” Perry told Diane Sawyer of ABC News. Aniston was the one who reached out the most. Perry called her speech a “scary moment” and said, “I’m really grateful to her for that.”
Perry also talked about how he was told he had a 2% chance of life after his opioid abuse caused his colon to burst and put him into a coma for two weeks. The star told the crowd that he had 14 surgeries on his stomach and had to wear a colostomy bag for nine months. Perry had problems with drinking and drug abuse, which made his time on Friends a lot harder.
He used to be hooked on Vicodin and finished a 28-day detox program in 1997. In February 2001, he went back to rehab because he was addicted to drinking, Vicodin, methadone, and amphetamines. After that, he wrote about his problems in his autobiography, which came out last year.
Before a Friends reunion in 2021, Aniston told the Today show, “I didn’t understand the level of anxiety and self-torture that was put on Matthew Perry if he didn’t get that laugh and the devastation that he felt.”
On Friends’ X (formerly Twitter) account early Sunday morning, it said, “We are devastated to learn of Matthew Perry’s death.” We were all lucky to have him. We’re sorry for his family, friends, and all of his fans. When Perry talked to People magazine last year, he said that between 1997 and 2011, he had tried to get clean 15 times.
