Matthew Perry, well-known for his role as Chandler Bing in the sitcom ‘Friends,’ died in Los Angeles at the age of 54. First responders discovered Mr. Perry unresponsive in his home’s hot tub and were unable to resuscitate him.
Notably, the Friends actor had a rough upbringing and struggled for years with painkiller and alcohol addiction, attending rehab centers at various times. Mr. Perry detailed going through detox dozens of times and spending millions of dollars in repeated attempts to become clean in his memoir ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,’ which was released last year. He also discussed his previous relationships, revealing how he hated intimacy and drove away women who grew too close to him.
”That was me afraid. I manifest something that’s wrong with them, and then I break up with them. But there can’t be something wrong with everyone. I’m the common denominator. I left first because I thought they were going to annihilate me.” he said ahead of the release, he told People in October 2022.
He does, however, claim to have ”overcome” his ”phobia of love” after being clean in May 2021.
”I’m not run by the fear I used to be run by, so everything’s kind of different. I’m feeling more confident, and I’m not afraid of love anymore, so the next girl I go out with better watch out. The thing that’s changed about me is I have no interest in hanging out with somebody that I don’t know or somebody that I’m not that into. The next person I really take seriously is somebody that I’m going to be in love with and not be scared by the things that used to scare me,” he added.
He Also Stated That He was Looking Forward to Being a Dad
He also stated that he is looking forward to being a dad ‘I think I’d be great. I really do. I grew up with a lot of little kids around me, and that’s probably why, but I can’t wait, he continued.
Though he never married, he was romantically engaged with celebrities such as Julia Roberts and ‘Mean Girls’ actress Lizzy Caplan.
He dated Julia Roberts for six months until they parted ways in 1996. He stated that he ended his relationship with the “beautiful and brilliant” Ms. Roberts due to his own drug difficulties and not feeling “enough” for her.
“Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me,” Mr. Perry wrote. He added that he felt Ms. Roberts was “slumming it” by dating him. “Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, and unlovable. So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts,” Mr. Perry stated.
From 2006 to 2012, he was in a relationship with Lizzy Caplan. Mr. Perry was also briefly engaged to Molly Hurwitz in 2020, but the relationship ended after only six months.
