On October 28, Matthew Perry died in his Los Angeles home. The beloved Friends star’s death is still pending investigation, but ever since the news, family, friends, and fans worldwide mourned his tragic death.
The Friends cast, consisting of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc, all attended the private funeral of Matthew Perry, and reports state that they are, of course, heartbroken after his death. And it seems like Jennifer Aniston was the one most affected.
Weeks after Matthew Perry’s death, people close to Aniston revealed that she was “distressed.” Now, while trying to get back on her feet, the former Friends star is urging the late Matthew’s fans to do one more thing.
Matthew Perry was found “unconscious in a stand-alone jacuzzi” at his home in the Pacific Palisades, California, on October 28, at age 54. The cause of death is believed to be drowning.
Some days after the funeral, Perry’s death certificate was released, stating that he died at 4.17 pm at his California home and was unresponsive at the scene by the time first responders arrived.
Perry’s official cause of death is still to come, as the toxicology reports are pending. However, initial toxicology reports found that the star did not have meth or fentanyl in his system at the time of his death.
Matthew Perry
Speaking to Fox News in late October Dr Michael Baden, former chief medical examiner of New York City, said a full toxicology report could already have been completed.
“They’ve got pretty much 99 per cent of what they’re going to get at this point as far as information goes, and they can release it now, or they can wait for a couple more weeks because they’re looking for some unknown drug,” Baden said at the time.
Family, friends, and fans were devastated after the tragic news. The Friends cast, with whom Matthew Perry spent years and years on set, stayed friends after the show ended. The Williamstown, Massachusetts native had a long battle with alcohol and drugs, which spiraled downward after he was prescribed Vicodin following a jet ski accident in 1997.
“It wasn’t my intention to have a problem with it,” he told People in 2002. “But from the start, I liked how it made me feel, and I wanted to get more.”
While Perry was always showing up to work and cracking jokes as Chandler, outside of work, his addiction worsened.
“I had this odd rule that I would never drink on a set,” Perry told The New York Times. “I went to work in extreme cases of hangovers. It’s so horrible to feel that way and have to work and be funny on top of that.”
“I don’t remember three years of it,” Perry revealed in an interview with the BBC about filming Friends while struggling with his addiction. “I was a little out of it at the time — somewhere between Seasons 3 and 6.”
Special bond with Jennifer Aniston
The Friends cast were close friends outside of the spotlight as well. Therefore, it was inevitable that Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer would overlook Perry’s struggles. They tried helping him the best way possible – and the one standing in the frontline was Jennifer Aniston.
“I thought I was hiding it so well. But I wasn’t in a position to stop, Perry shared, adding that Jennifer Aniston “was the one who reached out the most.”
Matthew always had a massive place in Jennifer Aniston’s heart. She played a critical part in trying to help him the best she could. In a 2004 interview with Diane Sawyer, Aniston broke down in tears when discussing “the idea of even losing” Matthew Perry.
“He’s struggled,” Aniston said, referencing Perry’s battle with addiction. “We didn’t know; we weren’t equipped to deal with it. Nobody had ever dealt with that, and at the idea of even losing him… he’s having a road, but he’s all right.”
Sadly, Aniston’s biggest fear was realized when Matthew Perry was found dead at his home in the Pacific Palisades, California, on October 28.
The Friends cast shared an emotional statement afterward. They were all in attendance when the actor was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
An entire industry mourned Perry, and for his co-stars on the hit sitcom, it hit closer to home. And according to a Hollywood insider, Jennifer Aniston has been struggling with the loss of Matthew Perry the most.
“All five of the Friends cast are in real bad shape, but Jen’s by far taking this the worst,” the Hollywood insider told Woman’s Day.
Jennifer Aniston was “one of the last people” to speak to Matthew Perry
“She’s torturing herself with each and every scenario where she could have done this or should have said that. She was one of the last people to speak to him, and she’d planned on calling him on Sunday [the day after he died]. She’s been going over every word, but no one could have known.”
The insider stated, “The real pain is the fact she’s been with him almost every step of the way. She had huge hopes for a big comeback for Matthew, and they were talking about working on a new script together. There was so much to look forward to, but even Jen knows it was his body that gave out, not Matthew.”
“She knows he wanted to live, which makes his premature death unbelievably cruel. He had so much more to give. She’s absolutely crushed, and it will take her a long time to recover. She will never be convinced she didn’t do everything she could to save him, but she truly did. The world had Matthew Perry for a lot longer than expected thanks to Jen and Courteney Cox helping him through those dark times.”
Matthew Perry was an essential part of Jennifer Aniston’s life. Less than a year ago, she lost her father, veteran TV soap star John Aniston.
The fact that she’s lost two of the most influential men in her life in less than a year has, according to an Express source, not been easy on her.
“It’s hit her that she’s lost two of the most important men in her life in the space of 12 months and she’s reeling,” the source said.
“[Matthew Perry] was like a brother to her. Jen was badly hit by her father’s death and was really only coming to terms with his passing when the terrible news about Matty hit her like a ton of bricks. She’s still in a state of shock over him, and now the anniversary of her dad’s death has plunged her into even deeper grief. She’s utterly distraught.”
Julia Roberts breaks silence
A little more than a month has passed since Matthew Perry’s death. Several other of his family members, friends, and colleagues have decided to speak out about the shocking death of the Friends star.
Julia Roberts, who appeared on the 1996 Superbowl special episode of Friends, has waited to speak out. She starred as Matthew Perry’s character Chandler Bing’s former classmate Susie. For Chandler, sadly, she flirted with him to get revenge for a prank he pulled on her in fourth grade.
Meanwhile, when Roberts was not on camera but standing behind the stage watching Perry act, it was evident that something was happening between them. If not, it was bound to happen.
“I remember standing with her on the sidelines. She kept saying, ‘Chandler’s so funny!’ And I’m like, ‘I wrote every one of those lines!'” Friends writer Jeff Astrof recalled.
After the episode had aired, Perry and Roberts began dating. Sadly, their romance lasted only two months as Matthew Perry broke up with her.
On Monday, Julia Roberts appeared in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, breaking her silence on Matthew Perry’s tragic death for the first time.
“The sudden passing of anybody so young is heartbreaking,” Roberts said. “I think that you know, it just helps all of us just appreciate what we have and to keep going in a positive way as best we can.”
The Matthew Perry Foundation
Just days after Matthew Perry’s death, his family announced the establishment of the Matthew Perry Foundation.
The purpose of the charity is to help others suffering from addiction by “identifying addiction as a disease, addressing the complex of stigmas that prevents individuals from seeking and accessing care, and fiercely advocating for better and more equitable treatment.”
“It is important to us, as a family, to honor Matthew’s legacy, the late Friends star’s family said in a statement to People. “The potential that the Matthew Perry Foundation has to help those suffering from this disease is something we are proud to bring to the world.”
Every year on November 28, the independent nonprofit organization GivingTuesday tries to unleash “the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.” The global movement wants to highlight all sorts of organizations, leaders, and others who try to make their community a better place.
This year, many wanted to highlight the Matthew Perry Foundation. On X, formerly known as Twitter, Matthew Perry’s step-father, Dateline reporter Keith Morrison, posted a statement for Giving Tuesday, urging people to donate to the foundation.
“This is not the sort of thing I commonly do, this pitch. But this year is different. And tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. Do what you can; he would have been grateful.”
As previously mentioned, Jennifer Aniston was very close to Matthew Perry.
Jennifer Aniston urges fans to show their support
She, of course, also wanted to highlight her late friend’s foundation for Giving Tuesday. On Instagram, to her 45 million followers, Aniston posted a message in honor of Giving Tuesday, urging her fans to support the foundation.
“For #GivingTuesday please join me and Matty’s family in supporting his foundation – which is working to help those suffering with addiction,” Aniston wrote in a post on her Instagram Story. “He would have been grateful for the love.”
On January 15, the yearly Emmy Awards will be hosted at the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Like many other gala shows, Emmys will honor those in the television business who passed away last year with an “in Memorium” segment, and everything points toward Matthew Perry being included.
However, it might be an even more significant segment for the late Friends Star being planned. According to Daily Mail, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, David Schimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow are in talks to reunite on stage to share their ‘personal memories’ of Perry. The source tells the news outlet that his beloved friends want to give him a tribute he “rightfully deserves.”
“When it comes to Matthew’s death, emotions are still running high, and it is still a very touchy situation, which is totally understandable,’ a source told DailyMail.
“They all would love to get together”
“But Jen, Lisa, and the rest of the cast want to honor him publicly at some point and give him the tribute he so rightfully deserves – and there have been rumblings to do it at next year’s Emmys.”
The source added, “They all would love to get together on stage to speak about him and also have their own unique moment sharing memories about him and telling the world about the man he was in real life. If they can all agree on a worthy tribute and get the blessing of his family, they will absolutely get together to make that night a special moment for Matthew and all who loved him.”
If you liked this article, perhaps you’d be interested in reading what Michael J Fox had to say after Matthew Perry’s death – and the secret he always had kept.
Rest in peace, Matthew Perry. Please share this article to honor him and his legacy
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