Matthew Perry opens up about time Jennifer Aniston confronted him about addictions
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Matthew Perry has opened up about the moment Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his addiction problems.
In a new interview, the Friends star recalled how fame took its toll on his mental health, causing him to turn to drugs and alcohol.
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Speaking to Diane Sawyer, Perry revealed that it got to the point where his co-star, who played Rachel in the show, had to speak to him about it.
The 53-year-old recalls Aniston telling him: "'We know you're drinking'."
Adding: "Imagine how scary a moment that was. She was the one that reached out the most... I'm really grateful to her for that."
Elsewhere in the interview, the actor discusses the difficulty he had coping at the very height of his fame.
He says: "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."
Adding later: "Secrets kill you... secrets kill people like me."
Alongside alcohol, substances played a major part in his life, and at one point during shooting the show, he says he was taking up to 55 Vicodin a day.
Speaking to People ahead of the launch of his new memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry said he wanted to wait until he was in a secure place with his sobriety before telling his story.
"I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again," he told the outlet.
"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. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people."
Previously, his co-stars have talked about how hard it was for Perry at that time, and how they struggled to see him go through it.
Back in 2002, Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe in the hit series, told the New York Times: "When Matthew was sick, it was not fun. We were just hopelessly standing on the sidelines. We were hurting a lot.
"Matthew is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life. He’s charming and hilarious. Most of our hard laughs came from Matthew."
If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support
Topics: Film & TV, US News, Friends, Entertainment, Film and TV
