Lauren Graham recalls receiving a sweet gift from Matthew Perry before he passed away

Matthew Perry tragically died last year, with the news mourned by millions of people across the world.

The 54-year-old actor was best known for his beloved portrayal of Chandler Bing on the sitcom Friends, but in recent years he has been most celebrated for the work he has done for substance abuse awareness following his own experiences.

In the six months since his tragic death, those close to the actor have shared memories and anecdotes about him, with Gilmore Girls actor Lauren Graham opening up about her late friend during her recent book tour. 

Graham and Perry were known to be close, working together on multiple occasions, with the Friends actor once referring to her as "one of [his] favourite people".

"While he was not technically ever a boyfriend, he was an almost in my life,” Graham recalled recently, via Deadline, calling Matthew Perry "a friend and a constant."

“We would stretch for a year, then he would come back in my life, and he had just come back in my life last year."

Graham also opened up about a sweet gift that she received from Perry just months before he passed away, with the Friends actor gifting her a pickleball set her birthday in March 2023. 

According to Graham, Perry was "really into tennis and pickleball", and accompanied the gift with a card that read, ‘Be older.’” 

Graham also went on to recall the success of Perry's bestselling 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, explaining how proud he was of the impact it had made. 

“The solace I take from having seen him at the time I saw him was he was so thrilled with how his book was received," she recalled. "And not just because it was a huge success, but because his life’s work kind of became, ‘How can I give back? How can I talk about the struggles I had and hopefully help someone else?’”

This is something that Graham also opened up about previously on CBS Mornings, recalling “this last year, he was so proud of the book he wrote, and of how many people it touched. It was a success that gave him a level of happiness that I hadn’t seen in him for a really long time, so that’s a nice memory.”

We will continue to update this story.