Friends creator reveals shock Matthew Perry truth

The creators of Friends have revealed some shocking insight into Matthew Perry’s struggles while the show was airing on TV.

Matthew Perry was offered the chance to leave Friends at the height of his fame, its been revealed in a new interview.

Friends creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane have opened up about the late actor and learning of his addiction during the show’s run.

Perry played Chandler Bing on the beloved NBC sitcom, which aired from 1994 to 2004, at a time during which the actor struggled with drug addiction.

His struggles could be seen in Perry’s physical appearance, which changed drastically depending on which season was airing.

Matthew Perry struggled so much with his addiction issues that the creators of Friends offered the star the chance to walk away. Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images.

“By the time we became aware of it, we were already a family on a lot of levels,” Crane told The Times.

“There was a point where we said to him: ‘Do you want to stop [being in the show]?’,” Crane said.

However, despite his struggles, Perry was determined to stick it out and remain part of the cast.

“And he was adamantly like: ‘No, this is really important to me,’ ” Crane said.

Kauffman said she had “the most contact” with Perry of all six stars before his death.

“About two weeks before [he died] he and I were FaceTiming and he seemed really good,” Kauffman said.

“Two things come to mind [about how to celebrate him]: one of them is to donate to drug treatment centres – let’s fight the disease. And the second way is to watch Friends and remember him not as a man who died like that but as a man who was hilariously funny and brought joy to everybody,” she said.

Perry decided to stay on the show because it was “important” to him, said one of the creators. Picture: Supplied.

One of Perry’s stints in rehab took place immediately after filming Chandler’s wedding to Monica Geller (Courteney Cox).

He later revealed he was “driven back to the treatment center … in a pick-up truck helmed by a sober technician” right after the scene wrapped.

“You can track the trajectory for my addiction if you gauge my weight from season to season,” he wrote in his book Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.

“When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills. When I have a goatee, it’s lots of pills,” he wrote.

The late star also said that Season 9 was the only season of the show he was fully sober for.

It comes after police made several bombshell arrests in the investigation into Perry’s tragic death last year.

Originally published as Friends creator reveals shock Matthew Perry truth