In 2022, talking to Diane Sawyer, Matthew opened up about the special friendship he had with Jennifer.
“She was the one that reached out the most,” he said. “You know, I’m really grateful to her for that.”
But she wasn’t just a support to Matthew after the show. Jennifer was the castmate who first called him out about his addictions.
“Jennifer, she says, ‘We know you’re drinking’.
“Imagine how scary a moment that was,” he said.
“I should have been the toast of the town, but I was in a dark room meeting with nothing but drug dealers and completely alone.”
Matthew Perry died on Saturday morning. The 54-year-0ld was found in a hot tub his LA home, dead after an apparent drowning accident.
RELATED: Friends star Matthew Perry dead at 54
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Matthew Perry talks about addiction
Matthew’s first brush with alcohol came at 14 and by 18 he was drinking consistently, according to his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing which was released in November 2022.
Drugs came later, and by accident.
After season two of Friends wrapped up, the actor was in Las Vegas filming When Fools Rush In when he had a jet ski accident.
The prescription for Vicodin began his debilitating pill addiction. He said that at one point he was taking 55 tablets a day.
“I didn’t know how to stop,” he told People. “If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail’, I’d start packing. I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you get older.”
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Matthew said he shared his memoir in the hope that someone else struggling with addiction might find comfort in his story, similar to the comfort Jennifer offered Matthew.
“I say in the book that if I die, it would shock people, but it wouldn’t surprise anybody. And that’s a very scary thing to be living with.”
Matthew didn’t disclose to People how long he’d been sober for, but he said it was important to remember if he slipped up, it wasn’t the end of the world. The darkest times only made him stronger.
“It’s important, but if you lose your sobriety, it doesn’t mean you lose all that time and education. Your sober date changes, but that’s all. As long as you were able to fight your way back without dying, you learn a lot.”
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