Trigger Warning: this article mentions mental illness and substance abuse and may be distressing to some readers.
Matthew Perry has purposely put off writing his new book for years. He wanted to as sure as he’d ever been that its subject matter was entirely in his past—without the fear of it seeping back into his present.
Now, he’s ready. For the first time, Perry has bravely opened up about his long struggle with addiction in his new memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, and as he promotes its release (November 2022), he’s dropped some eye-opening revelations.
Speaking to PEOPLE in October, Perry explained that he is pretty certain his book will “help people”.
“I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again. I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober—and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction—to write it all down,” he told the publication.
Perry reveals some of his lowest points in the book, describing one moment a little under five years ago when he almost died from a burst colon due to his excessive opioid use.
The actor was 49 at the time. Publicly, it was acknowledged that Perry had suffered from a gastrointestinal perforation, but it was a different story behind the scenes.
“The doctors told my family that I had a 2 per cent chance to live. I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that,” he said.
Perry spent two weeks in a coma and five months in hospital in order to recover, and he required a colostomy bag for nine months while his body healed from the trauma.
Perry also detailed how his addiction struggles began with alcoholism when he was filming friends in the mid to late 90s.
“By the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble,” he shared.
“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.”
But the actor added that there were some years where he was sober, sometimes for entire seasons.
“Season 9 was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, ‘That should tell me something.'”
Perry also discussed how his Friends cast mates, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer supported him when he was struggling the most.
“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,” he described.
Since his addiction struggles began, Perry has been admitted to rehab 15 times, and has had 14 surgeries on his stomach related to his substance abuse. He told the publication that he wouldn’t disclose how long he has been sober, but he still counts every day.
These days, Perry says he’s “pretty healthy” with nothing but gratefulness for that fact.
“I’m grateful to be alive, that’s for sure. And that gives me the possibility to do anything.”
If you or someone you know needs help you can call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyondblue 1300 224 636.
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