Friends star Matthew Perry reveals the ‘scary’ moment co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his drinking problem
FRIENDS star Matthew Perry has revealed the “scary” moment when co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his drinking problem.
The actor, 53, made the admission in the trailer for his upcoming ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer.
The extend of the A-list star’s addiction to alcohol and prescription medication is revealed in his new memoir, Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing.
But to promote the book, Matthew chatted to Diane Sawyer about some of the more painful details of his past, which saw him at one point drinking a litre of vodka a day.
In the interview, to air in the US next Friday (October 28), fans will see him discuss his relationship with Friends co-star Jennifer, during their time on the show.
“At the time I should have been the toast of the town, I was in a dark room meeting nothing but drug dealers and completely alone,” Matthew tells Diane.
READ MORE ON MATTHEW PERRY
He recalled how Jennifer approached him one day on the set of Friends, where she bluntly revealed to the actor that she and the rest of the cast ‘know you’re drinking.”‘
“Imagine how scary a moment that was,” he told Sawyer before talking more about Jennifer’s continued support during his recovery.
Meanwhile, Matthew reveals in his new memoir how he started drinking heavily when he first joined the cast of Friends in 1994, aged 24.
But when he was involved in a jet ski accident in 1997, he was prescribed the painkiller Vicodin, and quickly became reliant on it, even after his injuries healed.
That was the first time Matthew admitted himself to rehab, spending 20 days at the Hazelden Betty Ford Center in Minnesota.
Most read in TV
But it wasn’t enough to get him clean, and Matthew — who has previously admitted he “doesn’t remember filming three years” of Friends — continued to fight his demons.
He tried to hide his condition, but his yo-yoing weight from series to series alarmed both his co-stars and his fans.
He has said previously: “I was out of control and very unhealthy.” And he joked: “I returned to my original birth weight.”
By 2001 he was drinking a litre of vodka a day. He told People: “I didn’t know how to stop.
“If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail’, I’d start packing.
“I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older.”
FRIENDS FOREVER
With the support of his Friends cast mates — Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, and of course Jennifer — Matthew attempted to get clean, despite numerous relapses.
He said: “They were understanding and they were patient. 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.”
Read More on The Sun
Fans will be reassured by the news that Matthew is healthy, after he prompted fears when he slurred his words and nodded off during an interview to promote the Friends reunion in May 2021.
A source close to the Canadian actor said at the time that he wasn’t suffering a relapse, but had undergone dental work that left him feeling unwell.