Matthew Perry's long struggle with life-threatening addictions

The late Matthew Perry battled internal demons and addictions for a large part of his life. Even when he enjoyed astronomical fame as Chandler Bing in the sitcom 'Friends' (1994-2004), there were occasional news reports about his alleged drug abuse.

In his 2022 memoir, 'Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,' Perry would finally tell the entire, painful story about the struggles he'd had with addiction. A year later, he would suddenly pass away in his Los Angeles home, at only 54 years old.

In what People magazine calls a "heartbreakingly beautiful memoir," Perry recounted his beginnings in a middle-class family that seem to have been idyllic. He was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1969 and spent most of his younger years in Ontario, Canada.

His parents are both successful, public figures. Matthew Perry's mother is a Canadian journalist who worked as the press secretary to former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

His father, John Bennett Perry, is an American actor and model. He is known as the sailor in the 'Old Spice' commercials. With parents like these, it's not surprising that Matthew Perry felt comfortable in the spotlights from a young age. 

When he lived in Canada, Matthew was a standout junior tennis player. At the age of 15, however, he moved to Los Angeles with his father and turned his attention to acting.

In the beginning, he started with small roles in TV series, such as 'The Tracey Ullman Show' (1987), 'Second Chance' (1987-1988), and 'Beverly Hills, 90210' (1991).

In 1994, when 'Friends' crossed his path, Matthew Perry's career took off like a rocket. He was 25 at the time.

His character Chandler Bing appeared to be similar to the actor Matthew Perry. Chandler was a smart, committed guy in his 20s. His sarcastic humor contrasted him with the other two guys of the six 'Friends': the goofy Joey (his roommate) and the overly serious Ross (his best friend).

While he made millions of people laugh and his bank account was growing, Matthew Perry's personal life derailed. As he later noted in his memoir, his addiction began around the age of 24, when he was just starting to film 'Friends.'

As he's quoted in People magazine he could "handle it, kind of," in the beginning. "But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble."

According to his memoir, Perry was taking 55 pills of Vicodin a day. "I didn't know how to stop," he says. "I couldn't stop because the disease and the addiction are progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older."

In an interview with The New York Times in 2002, he said: "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.' And then you realize that it doesn’t accomplish anything, it’s certainly not filling any holes in your life."

As US Magazine reports, Matthew Perry first entered rehab in 1997. At that time, media like People magazine were already reporting on his health problems, although the details remained undisclosed.

His first time in rehab did not help him get clean. As he would tell The New York Times, it was "a really hard thing to do... You can’t have a drug problem for 30 years and then expect to have it solved in 28 days."In the end, the actor was only able to "stay sober for a brief period."

In 2000, Matthew Perry was hospitalized for pancreatitis caused by alcohol consumption. He shared with The New York Times in 2002 that he would not drink on his jobs - the series 'Friends' and the movie 'Serving Sara' - but he would arrive there every day with "extreme cases of hangover."

Image: 'Serving Sara,' Paramount

He went on to say that, in the end, "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."

The actor explained to The New York Times that, just like Chandler, he tried to cover up his problems through jokes. "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."

According to People magazine, his co-workers in 'Friends' were very understanding and patient. "It's like penguins," the actor says in the magazine. "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."

One of the most memorable episodes of 'Friends' was part of its seventh season: Monica and Chandler got married. It wasn't a happy affair on the set at all, though.

As Perry commented to The New York Times, he was in treatment during the filming of that season "and got driven back to the treatment center - at the height of my highest point in Friends, the highest point in my career, the iconic moment on the iconic show - in a pickup truck helmed by a sober technician."

Two years later, the actor was doing better. "Season 9 was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, 'That should tell me something,'" the actor wrote in his memoir, as quoted by People magazine.

The sobriety didn't last, however. When he was 49 years old, Matthew Perry reached an absolute low point. He suffered an intestinal perforation due to opioid overuse for which he spent two months in a coma, five months hospitalized, and nine months with a colostomy.

"The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live," he said in his memoir. "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."

By 2022, the actor had spent millions on medical treatments, undergone 14 operations, and paid 15 visits to rehab. However, as he stated in People magazine in 2022, he was "pretty healthy."

Matthew Perry let his followers on Instagram and the readers of People magazine know that he was publishing his memoir because he "wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again... to write it all down... I was pretty certain that it would help people."

Remembering the day he nearly died, the actor says: "There were five people put on an ECMO machine that night and the other four died and I survived... So the big question is why? Why was I the one? There has to be some kind of reason."

And that's how Matthew Perry decided he would write a book about his struggles with addiction. His survival had an important purpose. Tragically, the actor would be unable to enjoy the new phase of his life for much longer. He died on October 28, 2023.