The world is still reeling from the loss of Matthew Perry, the beloved Friends star who passed away at 54.
In the wake of this tragedy, revelations about Perry's battle with addiction and the support from his Friends co-star, Jennifer Aniston, have come to the fore.
Last year, in a poignant interview with Diane Sawyer, Perry illuminated the depths of his connection with Aniston, sharing, "She was the one that reached out the most. You know, I'm really grateful to her for that." He revealed how Aniston was the pillar of strength he leaned on during the highs and lows of his addiction journey.
When Perry's struggles became evident to his fellow Friends castmates, it was Aniston who took the initiative to confront him. Recalling the memory, Perry said, "Jennifer, she says, 'We know you're drinking.' Yeah, imagine how scary a moment that was."
At the pinnacle of his television career, Perry described feeling isolated and trapped, confessing, "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."
Perry's candidness extended into a 2022 interview with People where he recounted a period during Friends where he was consuming a staggering 55 Vicodin pills daily, and his weight had plummeted to a mere 128 pounds.
The entire Friends cast was aware of Perry's predicament. Describing their collective support, Perry beautifully compared it to the natural world, saying, "It's like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up. They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That's kind of what the cast did for me."
Even during this spiral, Perry had thought his wit and his cherished role on Friends would see him through. However, he realized, "I thought [Friends] was going to fix everything. It didn't."
Once he achieved sobriety, Perry voiced his gratitude for having overcome his demons, expressing, "I'm an extremely grateful guy. I'm grateful to be alive, that's for sure. And that gives me the possibility to do anything."
Perry's resilience post-recovery was remarkable. As he reflected on the darker periods, he said, "The way that I can bounce back from all of this torture and awfulness."
He chose to pen down these harrowing experiences in his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, aiming to be a beacon of hope for others just like Aniston had been for him.
His hope was that readers would grasp the gravity of his journey, admitting, "I think they'll be surprised at how bad it got at certain times and how close to dying I came." His candidness is a reminder of the indiscriminate nature of addiction, with the star saying, "It doesn't matter if you're successful or not successful, the disease doesn't care."
The world will remember Perry not just as the comedic genius he was on-screen but also for his bravery in sharing his personal struggles. With celebrities like Aniston standing by him, Perry's story is a testament to the strength of friendship and the power of human connection.