Jennifer Aniston’s heartbreaking 2004 Matthew Perry interview resurfaces

The Friends actress broke down in tears as she spoke about her beloved castmate in the emotional interview, which has resurfaced after his death.

Jennifer Aniston sobbed over the thought of losing Matthew Perry in a 2004 interview.

Footage of Jennifer Aniston breaking down in tears over the thought of “losing” Matthew Perry has resurfaced online following his tragic death over the weekend.

The two actors were part of the six core stars of the beloved sitcom Friends – along with David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and Courteney Cox – who all shot to fame shortly after it premiered in 1994.

In an interview with Diane Sawyer back in 2004, Aniston was asked what her co-star didn’t know about himself and needed to hear.

“That he’s alright,” the actress responded, before becoming overwhelmed with emotion.

“He struggled, and we didn’t know. We weren’t equipped to deal with it. Nobody had ever dealt with that. And the idea of losing him …”

Aniston broke down in tears during the 2004 interview.

Perry, who was found dead at his home on Saturday at the age of 54, spoke openly about his battle with drugs and alcohol addiction, which had marred the decade he spent playing Chandler Bing on the beloved sitcom.

In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he admitted that at one point, he was drinking a litre of vodka and taking 55 Vicodin every day.

Aniston as Rachel and Perry as Chandler on the sitcom.

Perry’s death has left his castmates “devastated”. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Yesterday, Aniston, Kudrow, Cox, Schwimmer and LeBlanc released a heart-wrenching statement about their beloved co-star and friend to People.

“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” their statement read.

“There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”

“In time we will say more, as and when we are able. For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world.”

The core six cast members were best friends. Picture: Everett Collection

While the entire Friends cast was known for being one of the closest teams on TV, Perry had a particularly tight bond with Aniston.

In his own interview with 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 told People magazine 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.

“[They] were understanding, and they were patient,” Perry said of his co-stars.

“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.”

Perry also praised Aniston for maintaining her compassion toward him, even years after the show ended its decades-long run in 2004.

“She was the one who reached out the most,” Perry told Sawyer.

“You know, I’m really grateful to her for that.”

Aniston supported Perry during the 2021 Friends TV reunion.

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.”

Originally published as Jennifer Aniston’s heartbreaking 2004 Matthew Perry interview resurfaces