Matthew Perry’s sister recalls 'hyperventilating and crying' after Friends star confided in her about addiction struggles
Mia Perry Bowick, the young sister of Matthew Perry, has recalled the emotional moment the Friends actor opened up on his struggles with addiction.
The One About Matthew Perry, a Netflix documentary about the actor, releases on the streaming platform on Tuesday (October 27).
It looks back on Perry's stellar acting career, while also touching on the struggles he had with alcohol addiction and drug abuse as told by some of Perry's closest friends and family members.
Mia, Perry's younger sibling, features heavily in the three-part documentary and spoke in episode two of the moment she went to go visit her brother while he was in rehab back in 2001.
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"We were all sitting in a big group together and a lot of other people were there with their families," she said in the documentary.
"At one point, I think Matthew might have been talking and I started crying. I actually got up out of the room and into a closet of some kind and I was just hyperventilating and crying."
Mia recalled feeling 'really overwhelmed' by the situation, before emotionally adding in the film: "This was my idolised big brother. He was the most special person on the planet."
Elsewhere in The One About Matthew Perry, Mia recalled the 'wrenching and harrowing' day that was Perry's funeral.
However, there was a more heartwarming moment when she felt Perry was with her.
“He showed up right behind my right shoulder and goes, ‘How f***** up is this?’" Mia said in the documentary.
"And I started laughing so hard. I was like, ‘Oh my god — there he is!’ Making me laugh at the most horrible moment, and also incredibly inappropriate for me to start laughing, but I just started cracking up. And I was like, ‘Yeah man, this is pretty f***** up.'"
Perry died aged 54 on 28 October, 2023, after he was found deceased in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home.
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner determined the Friends actor died from the acute effects of ketamine combined with drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine.
Jasveen Sangha, Kenneth Iwamasa, Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Erik Fleming are all behind bars after pleading guilty in connection to charges related to Perry's death, while Dr. Mark Chavez was sentenced to eight months of home detention after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute ketamine.
The One About Matthew Perry premiers on Netflix at 12:00am PT/3:00am ET on Tuesday, October 27.
Topics: Matthew Perry, Friends, Netflix, Film and TV
Callum Jones