Perry on his drastic weight loss in this one scene

In his new memoir, the Friends star jokes that when his colon exploded, he was so "full of sh** it almost killed him". But he's deadly serious about his addictions.

Matthew Perry on the final episode of season six and the first episode of season seven.

In his new memoir, the Friends star jokes that when his colon exploded, he was so "full of sh** it almost killed him". But he's deadly serious about his addictions.

At just 24 years old Matthew Perry was cast in what would become the world's most popular sitcom, Friends. And at just 24 years old Perry already had an alcohol addiction.

He would "struggle to get that monkey off his back" throughout all ten seasons, and then for decades beyond. 

Now, in his new memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, 53-year-old Perry reveals how he would secretly drink on the set of Friends. How he would take 55 painkillers a day. How he once promoted the film Almost Heroes while he was high after the loss of his co-star Chris Farley, who also struggled with addiction.

Matthew Perry attends the 2022 US Open. Picture: Gotham/GC Images

In an extract of the book published in The Times, Perry warns readers, “Please note: for the next few paragraphs, this book will be a biography rather than a memoir because I was no longer there.”

That's because he had entered a coma during a seven-hour life-saving surgery after his colon exploded. He quips as Chandler Bing might that he was "so full of shit it almost killed me".

Opiates cause constipation, and by this stage it is "Day Ten of No Movement", Perry cautiously jokes.

The next sentence reads: "I hadn’t taken a shit in ten days — there, there’s the drift." Nothing is euphemised for long in this book as tragedy is laid bare.

His family members were told he had only a 2% chance of surviving the surgery. When he opened his eyes for the first time in two weeks, his mum told him exactly that.

 “Your resiliency is incredible. And with some life changes, you’re gonna be OK. And they can remove the colostomy bag in about nine months," his mum told him.

Perry writes,

"I thought, I have a colostomy bag? That’s great. Girls find that to be a definite turn-on."

The memoir captures Perry's famous humour as he reveals the tragedy that he was afraid to die, and yet he almost killed himself. Again. And again. 

"I hated myself. I had almost killed myself. The shame, the loneliness, the regret were too much to handle. I just lay there, trying to deal with all of it, but there was no dealing with it. It had already been done.

"I was afraid to die, which was in direct opposition to my actions. But it was over. The Matthew Perry Show, cancelled by opiates."

FRIENDS QUIZ - FRIENDS -- Pictured: Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing -- (Photo by Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Avid Friends fans tracked the trajectory of Perry's addiction through weight gains between seasons.

"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 writes. "Watch the final episode of season six and the first of season seven — the Chandler-Monica proposal episodes. I’m wearing the same clothes in both, since it’s supposed to be the same night, but I must have lost three and a half stone in the off-season. My weight varied between 9st 2lb and 16st 1lb during the Friends years."

Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing on the final episode of season six, then in the same outfit on the first episode of season seven.

It was at the beginning of season six then after experimenting with methadone, a drug that can reverse a painkiller addiction, a cast member walked into Perry's trailer at the set.

"I know you’re drinking,” Jennifer Aniston said.

"I had long since gotten over her — ever since she started dating Brad Pitt, I was fine — and had worked out exactly how long to look at her without it being awkward, but still, to be confronted by Jennifer Aniston was devastating. And I was confused.

“How can you tell?” I said. I never worked drunk. “I’ve been trying to hide it . . .”

“We can smell it,” she said, in a kind of weird but loving way, and the plural “we” hit me like a sledgehammer."

Pictures from the Friends Reunion. Picture: Warner Bros Entertainment Inc/Binge

The Times has published two extracts so far, and a third will be published tomorrow. We will update this story.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry is available from November 1.