before him Reported death due to drowning When I was 54 years old, Matthew Perry In his intense 2022 memoir, he opens up about his life, career and struggle with addiction. Friends, lovers, and the big scary thing.
53 years old friend The star opens up like never before in the book, detailing his turbulent home life, the ups and downs of his long-speculated drug and alcohol abuse, and his relationship with Starr, who has been known for years. julia roberts and Valerie Bertinelli.
But the most important message came from a man who is grateful to be alive after everything he’s been through and wants to lift back the veil on the real people behind some of the world’s most beloved sitcom characters.Actually like perry Said new york times Ahead of the book’s release, he shares some of his happiest moments. friend In real life, I was surrounded by the darkest times.
he said new york times In the Season 7 finale of the NBC drama, Chandler Bing, after marrying Courteney Cox’s Monica Geller, was “taken back to the treatment center in a pickup truck driven by a plain engineer.”
”[I was] at the height of my highest point friend“It was the high point of my career, an iconic moment on an iconic show,” he says. I wasn’t doing it to get high or feel good. I certainly wasn’t much of a party person. I just wanted to sit on the couch, take her 5 Vicodin pills and watch a movie. It was heaven for me. Not so anymore. ”
Read on for some more of the biggest revelations from Perry’s book.
He faced death many times.
Perry’s book mentions several hospitalizations that he endured over the years due to drug and alcohol abuse. But the book begins with his most harrowing medical emergency. suffered a gastrointestinal perforation At age 49, his colon ruptured due to overuse of opioids. Ms Perry fought for her life and she was in a coma for two weeks, spent five months in hospital and had to use a colostomy bag for nine months.
“Doctors told my family I had 2 percent to live,” he said. people at that time. “I was put on something called an ECMO machine. It does all the breathing for my heart and lungs. It’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.”
In her book, Perry revealed that she had undergone 14 stomach surgeries and that her scars served as “memories to stay sober.” But her biggest motivation to avoid drugs was what her therapist told her. “Next time you think about taking OxyContin, think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life.”
At one point during his drug habit, he was taking 55 Vicodin per day.
Perry has not been shy about explaining the extent of his drug and alcohol problems. In addition to his Vicodin habit, he was taking up to 55 pills a day during his period. friendIn the third season of “I Love You”, he mentioned using and abusing Xanax, OxyContin, Dilaudid, methadone, buprenorphine/Suboxone, cocaine, and large amounts of vodka.
talk to new york times In an interview around the time the book was published, Perry revealed how much money he had spent fighting his addiction, admitting, “I probably spent $9 million or something like that to get sober.”
He said he never got high on the job. friendbut admitted that his drug use and drinking affected his performance on the show.
Perry claimed he never got high on the job. friendalthough he didn’t want to ruin the opportunity for everyone else, he admitted that his drug and alcohol use affected him in terms of getting hungover on set.
“One time, during the coffee shop scene where I was wearing a suit, I just fell asleep on the couch, and the crisis was averted only when Matt LeBlanc woke me up right before the line. I didn’t realize it, but I knew how close I was.”
he said he didn’t feel anything at that time friend Ended.
Perry recalled seeing his castmates sobbing around him. friend filmed its final episode in 2004, but the antidote he was taking at the time left him numb.
“I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t know if it was because of the opioid buprenorphine I was taking or if I was just dead inside,” he said. “So instead of sobbing, I slowly walked around the stage with my then-girlfriend. friend It was a safe place for me and a touchstone of calm. It gave me a reason to get out of bed every morning, and it gave me a reason to take it a little easier the night before. It was the time of our lives. It felt like every day brought new and great news. Even I knew that only a madman (as I did many times) would mess up such a job. ”
He claimed to barely remember proposing to Molly Hurwitz.
Perry was in a rehab facility in Switzerland when he proposed to his girlfriend Molly Hurwitz in 2019, saying he was “high on 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone” at the time.
“I even asked for her family’s blessings. Then I went high as a kite and got down on one knee and proposed. And she knew it too. And she said yes.” he recalled. “She bought her her ring because she really wanted her to leave me. She didn’t want to be this hurt and alone during the coronavirus pandemic. .”
“I went back to Los Angeles and was trying to sober up, and I was like, ‘Wait… how did we get engaged? I have a dog living in my house. How did this happen?'” he continued. “I asked her parents, I asked for her hand when I was high, I put up with the dog. That’s how much I was afraid of abandonment.”
he was supposed to be there don’t look up, However, he broke eight ribs and was forced to withdraw.
in the book, Perry revealed that he was originally cast to play a Republican journalist in Adam McKay’s star-studded 2021 apocalypse satire, but had to withdraw due to another medical emergency.
While at a rehabilitation center in Switzerland, Perry wrote that he was given the anesthetic propofol before surgery to reduce abdominal pain, but the drug had a serious interaction with hydrocodone that was already in his system.
“I got the shot at 11 a.m. and woke up 11 hours later in a different hospital. Apparently the propofol had stopped my heart, for five minutes. It wasn’t a heart attack — it wasn’t flatline. There was nothing—but nothing was beating,” Perry wrote.
“I heard that one strong Swiss man really didn’t want this guy. friend “He took his last breath on the table and they gave him CPR, pounding on his chest for five minutes,” he continued. friend, did it stop after 3 minutes?did friend Will you save my life again? ”
However, although the man saved Perry’s life, he “broke eight ribs” and Perry was in so much pain that he was unable to return to film. Perry called the decision to bow out of “the biggest movie I’ve ever seen” “heartbreaking.”
He wanted a family life.
One thing Perry really wanted to do with the rest of his life was to fall in love and start a family.he eventually broke things off He said he has ended almost all previous relationships with Hurwitz.
“It was scary,” he said. people. “That’s what I’ve made clear, there’s something wrong with them. And I’m breaking up with them. But there can’t be anything wrong with everyone. The common denominator is me. They’re wiped out. I left first because I thought I’d do it myself. “
Perry admitted that she was “extremely fearful” about love, but said, “After a lot of work, I was able to overcome that fear.”
“I’m going to learn as I go. What’s changed for me is that I’m not interested in hanging out with people I don’t know or don’t really care about,” he said. “The next person I’ll be really serious about is the one I’ll fall in love with and no longer be afraid of the things that used to scare me.”
As for who that person will be, Perry said he is looking for “someone who is independent.”
“In every sense of the word, especially financially, because I’ve been burned several times by women who didn’t care about me at all and went after my money,” he added. “Someone with a good sense of humor, beautiful inside and out, and caring. That’s really important. Someone I can interact with.”
He also wants to have children, and said of becoming a father, “I think it would be great. I really do. I grew up with a lot of little kids around me, so maybe that’s why. I don’t know, but I can’t do it.” hang on. “
Health, a partner, and children were all things Perry believed he could have while sober.
“Everything is a little different because I’m not driven by fear the way I used to be driven by fear,” he says. “I’m more confident now and I’m no longer afraid of relationships, so I should be careful about the girl I date next.”
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