Friends stars ‘reeling’ from tragic death of ‘brother’ Matthew Perry

They’re yet to speak publicly on the death of their beloved co-star, but the tight-knit Friends cast is reportedly “devastated” as they process the news.

Matthew Perry’s Friends co-stars are “reeling” from the death of their much-loved “brother”, it’s being reported.

While the five remaining cast members – Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow – are yet to speak publicly following Perry’s death at the age of 54, a source told Page Six that the news has been “devastating” to them.

“The cast is reeling from the loss of their brother, because that’s what Matty was — their brother,” the insider told the publication.

“It’s just devastating.”

The core cast of six actors were very close in real life. Picture: Everett Collection

The cast’s deep friendship was on full display during the highly-emotional Friends TV reunion in 2021, when Perry choked up while explaining his love for his co-stars.

“The best way that I can describe it is after the show was over, at a party or any kind of social gathering, if one of us bumped into each other, that was it. That was the end of the night. You just sat with the person all night long and that was it,” he said.

“You apologised to the people you were with, but they had to understand you had met somebody special to you and you were going to talk to that person for the rest of the night. And that’s the way it worked.”

While his castmates got teary, nodding in agreement, he added: “It’s certainly the way it worked with all of us. It’s just the way it is.”

Schwimmer and Perry in the 2021 Friends TV reunion. Picture: Terence Patrick

In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry admitted he’d had a huge crush on Aniston when they first met, and had been gutted when she’d gently turned down his offer of a date.

In his memoir, Perry spoke of how they’d protected and supported him. Picture: Lee Celano/AFP

But their friendship became much more significant as they embarked on the whirlwind fame journey that came with Friends, especially once Perry began what would become a decades-long struggle with addiction.

In an interview with US journalist Diane Sawyer last year, he admitted it was Aniston who had first confronted him about his problems while they were on a break from filming.

“We know you’re drinking,” she reportedly told her troubled co-star, who wrote that it was a “scary moment” – but proved that she was a true friend.

“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 said of his actions during the peak of his Friends fame in the early noughties.

He later wrote in the memoir that he’d thought he was doing a great job at hiding his drug and alcohol abuse, but he’d later realised they’d known he was struggling and were trying to protect him.

Originally published as Friends stars ‘reeling’ from tragic death of ‘brother’ Matthew Perry