Friends star Matthew Perry’s decades-long substance abuse battle

Matthew Perry has always been candid about his substance abuse issues — a problem that started very visibly at the height of his fame.

For a decade, he was the handsome, quirky boy next door on the hit sitcom Friends.

But fans are now wondering if Matthew Perry’s OK, after alarming new images show the 50-year-old staggering out of a restaurant on Sunday in a state of disarray and sucking on a cigarette with a mystery woman.

They immediately raised questions about whether Perry, who has been candid about his years of substance abuse issues, had again fallen off the wagon.

He has a history of stints in rehab in 1997 and 2001. He once even said that he was so far removed from the height of his TV career that he doesn’t remember filming multiple seasons of Friends.

Get the latest showbiz goss delivered straight to your inbox — sign up for our daily entertainment newsletter

“I think the answer is, I don’t remember three years of it,” he told BBC Radio 2 in 2016. “So none of those … Somewhere between Season 3 and 6 … I was a little out of it.”

Growing up in Canada, the Whole Nine Yards star was raised with a competitive streak and a penchant for tennis. He rose in the junior rankings to No. 2 in Ottawa until relocating to LA with his father in 1984, where he ultimately turned to acting.

Like any other struggling actor in the City of Angels, Perry faced a lot of rejection and worked on several failed TV shows before landing the life-changing role of Chandler Bing on Friends, a role he’d play from 1994 to 2004.

Perry (second from right) with his Friends co-stars.

“All the superficial things about (fame) came true,” he told People in 2002 of the series’ success. “I was naive enough to think it would fulfil all aspects of my life.”

Then, three years after the show’s debut, Perry got into a jet ski accident that would ultimately be the start of his addiction issues, as he started to become completely dependent on painkillers.

“It wasn’t my intention to have a problem with it,” he said. “But from the start I liked how it made me feel, and I wanted to get more.” As his addiction escalated, “I was out of control and very unhealthy,” said Perry, who lost around 10kg, which became incredibly apparent on the hit sitcom.

“I returned to my original birth weight,” he later joked.

Matthew Perry at left, in season 3 of Friends, and at right, in season 6.

His first rehab stint was at a facility in Minnesota, where he remained for 28 days, but the sobriety didn’t last. In 2000, Perry relapsed and ended up spending two weeks in the hospital for pancreatitis, which was caused by alcohol abuse, he said.

“Unfortunately,” Perry told People, “that still wasn’t enough to get me to quit drinking.”

Perry hit rock bottom in 2001 when he was drinking vodka by the quart and showing up to work brutally hungover and unable to function. He finally called his parents from a Dallas hotel room and asked for help.

“It was scary. I didn’t want to die,” he said. “But I’m grateful for how bad it got. It only made me more adamant about trying to get better.”

He spent two-and-a-half months in treatment and learned “that a happy life is possible without alcohol or drugs”.

The Fools Rush In star remained sober from thereon out, but in 2011 said he voluntarily checked back into rehab to keep his sobriety in check.

“I’m making plans to go away for a month to focus on my sobriety and to continue my life in recovery,” he said at the time. “Please enjoy making fun of me on the World Wide Web.”

Just two years later, Perry changed many lives when he converted his Malibu, California, home into Perry House, a sober-living facility for men that offered meditation and a 12-step workshop.

“When I die, I’d like Friends to be listed behind helping people,” Perry said.

In a Friends reunion that doubled as Jennifer Aniston’s first Instagram post. Picture: Instagram

In 2015, Perry received the Phoenix Rising Award from the wide-reaching non-profit drug and alcohol rehabilitation organisation Phoenix House and joked to The Hollywood Reporterthat he was an “award-winning alcoholic”.

“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life and a lot of wonderful accolades,” he told the trade publication that year, “but the best thing about me is that if an alcoholic comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me stop drinking?’ I will say, ‘Yes. I know how to do that.’”

The Odd Couple actor eventually sold the Malibu house for $US10.7 million with hopes of relocating Perry House to Santa Monica, where it would’ve been cheaper to run.

“I’m keeping the business going because I like it; it’s a good way to help alcoholics,” he said.

His plan ultimately didn’t come to fruition, and he permanently closed Perry House in 2016 amid rumours he was struggling in London as he performed in the West End.

Come 2018, Perry had a health setback, though he didn’t mention substance abuse when speaking about it. In August of that year, a rep for Perry confirmed he underwent surgery to repair a gastrointestinal perforation, and the actor then tweeted in September that he’d spent three months in the hospital.

One to stay out of the spotlight, Perry didn’t truly emerge until Jennifer Aniston joined Instagram in October 2019 and he appeared in her Friends cast reunion photo.

This article originally appeared on Page Six and was reproduced with permission.