Matthew Perry nearly DIED from opioid overuse and secretly spent weeks in a coma: Troubled Friends star admits he’s had 14 stomach surgeries, used a colostomy bag for nine months and has been in rehab 15 times – as he lays his addiction issues bare
- After having his first taste of alcohol at the age of 13, he continued drinking and was described opioids in 1997 to cope with the pain after suffering a jet ski accident
- Talking about his starring role on Friends at aged 24, his alcohol addiction was starting to surface
- At one point during his Friends career, he admits he was taking 55 Vicodin a day and was down to 128 pounds but yet he ‘didn’t know how to stop’
- In 2021, the cast of Friends reunited on screen for the first time in 17 years after being delayed by a year due to the Covid pandemic
- Friends fans expressed their concern at the time after Matthew appeared to slur his speech
- If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse in the US, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP
- If you are in the UK, call FRANK 24 hours a day, seven days a week 0300 123 6600
Friends star Matthew Perry has given his first tell-all interview in which he details how his drug and alcohol addictions secretly nearly cost him his life.
The star, 53, revealed he was given just a two per cent chance of survival after an opioid addiction caused his colon to burst when he was aged 49, leaving him in a coma for two weeks and spending months in hospital – a fact which his legions of fans were unaware of.
After suffering from a gastrointestinal perforation, Matthew said he had to use a colostomy bag for nine months, has now had 14 surgeries on his stomach in total and been to rehab 15 times in a bid to get clean.
Now sober, the beloved actor, best known for playing hapless Chandler Bing has detailed his decades-long battle to rid himself of the disease of addiction.
When he was first admitted to the hospital, he said: ‘the doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live. I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.’
He told PEOPLE: ‘I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again.
Matthew Perry nearly DIED from opioid overuse and secretly spent weeks in a coma: Troubled Friends star admits he’s had 14 stomach surgeries, used a colostomy bag for nine months and has been in rehab 15 times – as he lays his addiction issues bare
‘I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people.’
Talking about his starring role on Friends at aged 24, his alcohol addiction was starting to surface.
He said he could handle it but he was ‘entrenched in a lot of trouble’ by the time he was 34. He said there were years during that time in which he was sober and in fact, he was sober throughout the whole of season nine, the year he got nominated for Best Actor.
At one point during his Friends career, he admits he was taking 55 Vicodin a day and was down to 128 pounds but yet he ‘didn’t know how to stop.’
He said the disease has got worse and worse and progressive and he’s got older and noted his Friends cast mates ‘were understanding, and they were patient.’
He said: ‘I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people’ – pictured in September 2021, (left)
A constant battle, Matthew says: ‘I’m pretty healthy now’. He is choosing not to say how long he has been sober for but is ‘counting each day.’
His stomach is covered in scars from his 14 surgeries and said they serve as a reminder to stay sober.
He said his therapist has told him that he may have to have a colostomy bag for the rest of his life if he takes drugs again, which helps him to avoid relapsing.
The actor, who checked himself into rehab during his time on Friends once in 1997 and again in 2001.
Matthew famously told the New York Times in 2002, one year after getting sober: ‘When [fame] happens, it’s kind of like Disneyland for a while.
‘For me it lasted about eight months, this feeling of “I’ve made it, I’m thrilled, there’s no problem in the world”.
He told the Hollywood Reporter in 2015: ‘I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life. I learned a lot from my failures.
‘But the best thing about me is that if an alcoholic comes up to me and says, “Will you help me stop drinking?” I will say, “Yes, I know how to do that.”‘
‘And then you realise that it doesn’t accomplish anything, it’s certainly not filling any holes in your life. I didn’t get sober because I felt like it. I got sober because I was worried I was going to die the next day.’
‘It’s no accident that Chandler is a guy who is trying to deter his own human emotional feelings with laughter. That’s what I did for years. I’ve tried to palm myself off as being a jokester, kind of like hanging out with me is kind of like a vacation. But that could only take me so far.’
He did his third stint in rehab in May 2011, when a representative for the star said it was to prevent a relapse.
The latest picture of Matthew: The actor has said he is currently sober but doesn’t want to say how long he has been sober for – only that he ‘counts the days’ – pictured promoting his book in September
Matthew said in a statement in 2011: ‘I’m making plans to go away for a month to focus on my sobriety and to continue my life in recovery. Please enjoy making fun of me on the World Wide Web.’
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2013, he said: ‘I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life and a lot of wonderful accolades. The best thing about me is that if an alcoholic comes up to me and says, “Will you help me stop drinking?” I will say, “Yes. I know how to do that”.’
Addiction left Matthew in a tough state, as he admitted to BBC Radio 2 in 2016.
‘I don’t remember three years of [the show],’ he said. ‘Somewhere between Seasons 3 and 6 … I was a little out of it.’
In 2021, the cast of Friends reunited on screen for the first time in 17 years after being delayed by a year due to the Covid pandemic.
Friends fans expressed their concern at the time after Matthew appeared to slur his speech in a promo for the special.
The actor stammered and stared in the clip, even slurring together his words at one point.
Under the radar: Pictured in 2016 (left) he said that year: ‘I don’t remember three years of [the show],’ he said. ‘Somewhere between Seasons 3 and 6 … I was a little out of it.’
Pictured in 2019: Perry has stayed under the radar in recent years. He caused concern when he looked dishevelled in his first sighting for almost two years that year
When asked if he ever took anything from set as a souvenir, he admitted: ‘I stole the cookie jar that had the clock on it’ with a heavy ‘sh’ sound at the start of ‘stole.’
Though his speech was stilted, Matthew’s physical appearance was on the healthier side.
His castmates were able to hide any of their concerns, as David and Matt giggled and smiled at the TV star, who played Chandler Bing on the NBC hit.
But fans were quick to voice their worries.
‘Just saw People interview and can’t believe how Matthew Perry looks like… seriously it breaks my heart,’ one fan wrote on Twitter.
‘It pains me to see Matthew Perry like this, he just seems off, gazing at the void, speaking slowly,’ wrote another.
‘Hate to say it, but I’m sad and scared like hell for Matthew Perry,’ a third added. ‘Damn, Matthew Perry in those PEOPLE Friends interviews.’
Concern: In 2021, the cast of Friends reunited on screen for the first time in 17 years – fans expressed their concern at the time after Matthew appeared to slur his speech in a promo for the special
Another tweeted: ‘Just watched @people exclusive interview clip of Friends casts and the time hasn’t been kind. I hope Matthew Perry is okay. Damn how much I love them.’
One wrote: ‘Let’s not use the friends reunion to make fun of the way matthew perry looks these days. people age, funnily enough.
‘Matthew has been through A LOT since friends wrapped up in 2004. be respectful instead of judgmental. hard block me rn if you think making fun of him is funny.’
Ben Winston, who directed Friends: The Reunion, said of those commenting on Perry’s appearance during the HBO Max special: ‘He was great. People can sometimes just be unkind. I wish they weren’t.
‘I loved working with him. He’s a brilliantly funny man and I thought he had some great one-liners in the show. I felt just happy and lucky to be in his presence and directing him on something like this.’
After having his first taste of alcohol at the age of 13, he continued drinking and was described opioids in 1997 to cope with the pain after suffering a jet ski accident.
Speaking to People in 2013, he recalled taking his prescribed pills without question: ‘I did and I felt better than I ever felt in my entire life. I had a big problem with pills and alcohol, and I couldn’t stop.’
He checked into rehab that same year in 1997, but said: ‘You can’t have a drug problem for 30 years and then expect to have it solved in 28 days. Getting sober is a really hard thing to do.’
Matthew has documented his journey in a memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing (available Nov. 1), detailing his journey.
Role: Matthew said the disease has got worse and worse and progressive and he’s got older and noted his Friends cast mates ‘were understanding, and they were patient’ (pictured second from left with the cast)
From finding fame to drug scandals as fans fear for his health: A look back at Matthew Perry’s off-camera trials and tribulations as he emotionally reunites with his Friends co-stars in TV special
He famously portrayed Chandler Bing in the classic sitcom Friends for a decade, bowing out from his beloved role when the show ended in 2004.
But while Matthew Perry’s character raised the laughs onscreen, it has been a starkly different – and far more dramatic – life off-screen for the star, whose numerous troughs and peaks have been well documented over the years.
Born in Massachusetts and raised north of the border in Canada’s capital Ottawa, the actor, was the focus of a series of headlines during much of his time on Friends, stemming largely from his hard-fought battle with drug addiction.
Ups and downs: While Friends favourite Matthew Perry has raised the laughs onscreen, it has been a starkly different – and far more dramatic – life off-screen for the star
Back in 1997, when his NBC sitcom was already flying high as a bona fide hit, the star was injured in a jet-ski accident – an already harrowing incident that led to the genesis of a far darker force as he became dependent on powerful painkiller Vicodin.
Perry has been open about his past struggles with addiction, previously telling People things got ‘out of control and very unhealthy’ after the accident.
The screen star, who currently boasts an estimated net worth of $120 million, told People in 2013: ‘I couldn’t stop. Eventually things got so bad that I couldn’t hide it, and then everybody knew.’
Emotional reunion: The star was comforted by his Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston has be broke down in tears during the upcoming reunion special
Perry reunited with his Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc for the hotly-anticipated show reunion, which was shot in April and aired on May 27 via HBO and HBO Max
A teaser from the one-off episode showed Perry being comforted by Aniston as he welled up, before later cutting to scenes of the actor reminiscing about his time on the show.
In the clip, Perry’s on-screen wife Cox states: ‘It was an incredible time. We became best friends’, to which Perry confesses: ‘Yep, I’m going to cry now.’
Dropping his head down and wrapping his arms around his body, Perry looks solemn as Jennifer leans over to comfort him.
Fame: Perry shot to fame on the iconic show, which followed a group of friends living in New York City. Also pictured are David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc
Season six, episode 14 of Friends was entitled The One Where Chandler Can’t Cry and aired back in February 2000.
When asked if he ever took anything from set as a souvenir, he admitted: ‘I stole the cookie jar that had the clock on it’ with a heavy ‘sh’ sound at the start of ‘stole.’
Though fans were left delighted by the teaser, there were also concerns after Perry appeared to slur his speech in a promo for the upcoming reunion special.
The actor stammered and stared in the clip, even slurring together his words at one point.
Heartthrob: The star was seen as quite the heartthrob during Friends’ early days on the air. Pictured in 1994 with his recurring co-star Morgan Fairchild
Despite having multi-million dollar net worth, the star’s life mirrored that of countless everyday people around the globe as he grappled with his demons and combated the resulting dramatically fluctuating weight.
He has likely sought solace within the towering walls of the many palatial homes he has snapped up across the palm tree-lined hills of Los Angeles over the years.
Perry’s $1 million-per-episode Friends pay day afforded him a sky-scraping penthouse in the City of Angels, which placed on the market for an eye-watering $27 million over the summer, having dropped the asking price from $35 million.
His luxury property clearance sale also included the screen star bringing his Malibu beach house to market for $14.95 million during the same period.
They’ll be there for you: Perry sparked concern with his slurring on the spcial, but seemed in good spirits as he filmed the reunion alongside his longtime friends and former castmates
As for where he currently lives? Perry last year purchased himself comparatively humble $6 million cottage in the tony neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades.
Post-Friends, Perry, the son of American actor and former model John Bennett Perry and Canadian journalist Suzanne Marie Morrison has been able to sustain his lifestyle by keeping himself busy with a slew of projects, to varying degrees of success.
In 2007, he received Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations for his critically acclaimed turn in the titular role of TNT movie, The Ron Clark Story, about a small-town teacher to relocates to educate the toughest class in the US.
Between 2006 and 2007, he continued to showcase his acting chops when he joined the cast of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip as Matt Albie, a writer-director character based on the show’s creator and executive producer Aaron Sorkin.
Wow: In 2020, the star put his Malibu beach house on the market for $14.95 million (pictured), while also selling an LA penthouse. He now lives in a $6 million cottage in Pacific Palisades
Other TV and movie roles followed, with the actor also treading the board of London, when he starred in David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity In Chicago in the West End.
However, replicating the success of Friends alluded him: Perry was the focus of much fanfare when it was announced that he was set to portray a middle-aged man going through an identity crisis in the ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine.
A sign of just how brutal the decision-making is in the revenue-hungry TV landscape, the series was cancelled after just nine episodes in early 2011.
His NBC pilot for Go On failed to fare much better. The show, which saw him portraying a sportscaster trying to move on from the death of his wife, premiered in 2012 but was cancelled the following year at the conclusion of the first season.
Series: Between 2006 and 2007, he continued to showcase his acting chops when he joined the cast of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip as Matt Albie
Short-lived: Perry portrayed a middle-aged man going through an identity crisis in the ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine. Debuting in early 2011, the series was cancelled after just nine episodes
Among his many TV roles was also a stint on British TV in the 2014 one-off The Dog Thrower, as well as portraying the late Ted Kennedy in the 2017 miniseries The Kennedys: After Camelot.
Perry last starred in a movie in 2009’s 17 Again opposite Zac Efron. He will next be seen in the comedy Don’t Look Up, which follows the tale of two astronomers, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, who discover that a giant asteroid that could destroy all life on Earth is cruising toward the planet.
The film boasts an absolutely stacked cast including Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Tyler Perry, Melanie Lynskey and Chris Evans, among others, and is expected to be released later this year.
It comes after Perry was embarrassed after a match from the dating app Raya leaked a video message sent by the star.
Could this BE more embarrassing? The engaged Friends star was outed for sending a girl, 19, cringe-worthy messages after matching on celeb dating app Raya
The Friends actor allegedly asked the 19-year-old girl, ‘Am I as old as your dad?’ during a flirty exchange that was leaked earlier this month.
Perry, who is currently engaged to fiancée Molly Hurwitz, 29, can be seen in a video posted on Thursday flirting with TikTok user @kittynichole – real name Kate Haralson – who claims they matched on the membership-only dating service in May last year.
Haralson, now 20, shared the footage of herself with the caption: ‘When you match w Matthew Perry as a joke on a dating app and he facetimes you and plays 20 questions with you.’
In the 16-second video, Perry is seen smiling as he asks his potential date, ‘Do you always play with your hair this much?’ to which she responds, giggling: ‘I guess so.’
Now THIS is a match: Perry got engaged to fiancée Molly Hurwitz in November 2020, having started dating in 2018 (but they split in June 2021)
Haralson, a personal assistant who says she was 19 when Perry first contacted her, told PageSix on Thursday that she wanted to show how older men in Hollywood are ‘taking advantage’ of younger women on dating apps.
‘A lot of people were saying I’m a bully and mean for posting this, and it made me feel kind of bad, but at the same time, I feel like a lot of guys in Hollywood are talking to all these young girls and it’s something that I think a lot of people should be aware of,’ she told the outlet.
Haralson claims the FaceTime exchange happened in May 2020, which is when Perry is said to have briefly split with his current fiancée Hurwitz, who he had been dating since 2018.
They split for good in June 2021.
The Los Angeles-based PA said she had matched with other celebrities before but wouldn’t ‘ever talk to older guys’ though she thought talking to the Friends actor ‘would be funny.’
Ex: Perry dated Oscar winner Julia Roberts from 1995 to 1996 (pictured on the set of Friends)
The exchange was believed to have been filmed six months before he announced his engagement to literary manager Hurwitz.
‘I decided to get engaged,’ the TV icon announced in People magazine on Thanksgiving after proposing. ‘Luckily, I happened to be dating the greatest woman on the face of the planet at this time.’
This would have marked the first marriage for Perry, who is famous for playing loveable and sarcastic Chandler Bing in Friends. However, he has had several highly publicized romances with notable names.
Perry briefly dated Baywatch star Yasmine Bleeth in 1995 and then moved on to Oscar winner Julia Roberts from 1995 to 1996. He has also dated Neve Campbell, Heather Graham and Maeve Quinlan.
His longest relationship was with actress Lizzy Caplan from 2006 until 2012.
Exes; Matthew and Scream star Neve Campbell struck up a romance on the Three To Tango set in 1998 (pictured left that year) while Matthew and former fashion student Rachel Dunn had a 14 year age gap but dated for two years from 2003-2005 (pictured right 2004)
Perry was also engaged to Kayti Edwards, who previously claimed he had her score drugs for him while she was pregnant – during their brief romantic relationship in the early Noughties.
In December last year, Kayti alleged in The Sun that when he was in the depths of his addiction he would take 80 Vicodin in one day.
She claimed that in 2011 when their relationship was platonic and she was five months pregnant he would pay her thousands of dollars to procure drugs for him.
Kayti alleged that he would ‘guilt trip’ her into going on the drug runs by offering to ‘go there myself and walk downtown,’ prompting her to pick up the slack instead in order to prevent him ‘driving’ or ‘wandering around the streets.’
However she also praised him as ‘funny’ and ‘easy-going,’ expressing her joy that he has gone on the wagon and settled down with Molly.
Romance: Before meeting Molly, his longest relationship was with actress Lizzy Caplan from 2006 until 2012. Pictured together in September 2011
Source: Read Full Article
