Matthew Perry reveals tragic truth behind iconic Friends scene

Friends star Matthew Perry has lifted the lid on what was really going on during one of the most popular episodes in the show’s 10-season history.

Matthew Perry has opened up about returning to rehab after filming an iconic Friends scene at the “highest point” of his career.

The actor told The New York Times on Sunday that his character, Chandler Bing, married Monica Gellar, played by Courteney Cox, in the show’s season 7 finale before he was “driven back to the treatment centre … in a pick-up truck helmed by a sober technician”.

Perry added: “[I was] at the height of my highest point in Friends, the highest point in my career, the iconic moment on the iconic show,” New York Post reports.

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Perry (as Chandler) alongside Courteney Cox (Monica).

The Fools Rush In star, 53, went on to speak to the outlet about his “exhausting” opioid addiction while promoting his upcoming memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.

He said he “would wake up and have to get 55 Vicodin [painkillers] that day and figure out how to do it”.

“When you’re a drug addict, it’s all math,” Perry said. “I wasn’t doing it to feel high or to feel good. I certainly wasn’t a partyer; I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin and watch a movie. That was heaven for me. It no longer is.”

The actor has opened up about his struggles with addiction. Picture: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

“There is a hell,” Perry writes in his memoir. “Don’t let anyone tell you different. I’ve been there; it exists; end of discussion.”

On Sunday, Perry gave more insight into his addiction battles, revealing Jennifer Aniston confronted him during their Friends days about his alcohol abuse. He also admitted he spent nearly $US9 million ($A14.2 million) on “trying to get sober”.

Perry “nearly died” a few years ago when his colon burst, and the star had to use a colostomy bag for nine months in the wake of the health crisis where doctors had given him just a 2 per cent chance of survival.

“My therapist said: ‘The next time you think about taking OxyContin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life,’” Perry told People magazine last week.

“And a little window opened, and I crawled through it, and I no longer want OxyContin.”

The actor has now been clean for 18 months and is open to getting married and having children.

“I think I’d be a great father,” he said on Sunday.

The Emmy nominee proposed to Molly Hurwitz in 2020, but the literary manager broke off their engagement the following year.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission