Matthew Perry reveals which Friend supported him ‘the most’ through addiction

Friends star Matthew Perry is opening up about his addiction struggles in a new memoir, revealing the extent of his decades long battle with substance abuse. 

In a new interview with Diane Sawyer, he revealed how in the 90s - despite being the star of a universally beloved sitcom - he was fighting his demons and how the cast of Friends rallied around him to help. 

In the emotional trailer for the Sawyer interview, he singles out Jennifer Aniston as someone who went the extra mile for him. Perry, who has since received treatment and told New York Times recently he had been ‘clean for 18 months’, revealed in his memoir the Friends cast staged an intervention in his dressing room. 

‘Imagine how scary a moment that was,’ he said to Sawyer.

He continued, ‘[Jennifer] was the one who reached out the most, you know. I’m really grateful to her for that.’

He also added to People that while Aniston had checked in on him the most, the rest of the core Friends cast had supported him too. 

Speaking to People, he called them ‘understanding’ and ‘patient.’ He told the outlet, ‘It’s like penguins. In nature, when one is sick or very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up and walk around until that penguin can walk on its own. And that’s kind of what the cast did for me.’

Perry, who said in his Sawyer interview it was ‘important for me to do something that would help people,’ openly shared the darkest moments in his life in his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. 

At one point, he revealed he was taking 55 Vicodin, methadone, xanax and a full quart of vodka a day and eventually went into a coma. He stressed that he was also lucky to be alive.

‘I should have been the toast of the town,’ he said of his 90s fame to Sawyer. ‘But I was in a dark room, meeting with nothing but drug dealers and completely alone.’

‘Secrets kill you,’ he told her. ‘Secrets kill people like me.’

Matthew Perry’s upcoming memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is set to be released on November 1 and can be pre-ordered now.

For anybody fighting their own private addiction battles, the NHS has a list of resources and advice for treatment here. Frank, the national anti-drug advisory service, can also help identify the nearest counsellors and treatment options near you on their website.