TheQuartering [10/30/2023]
Matthew Perry had dozens of life-saving surgeries, 15 trips to rehab clinics and spent $9 million trying to get clean as he struggled with drugs and alcohol.
Perry died aged 54 ‘after drowning in his jacuzzi at home,’ sources said on Saturday although no drugs were found on scene and there was no indication of foul play.
First responders were called to reports of a ‘cardiac arrest’ at his Los Angeles abode, according to law enforcement sources.
Perry previously detailed his battle with drug and alcohol addiction in tell-all autobiography Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing, released in November last year.
In 2019, he narrowly escaped death after his colon burst due to opioid overuse.
He described the moment his loved ones raced to the Los Angeles hospital where they were told the then 49-year-old had only a two per cent chance of surviving the night.
He slipped into a coma for two weeks and when he came discovered he had been fitted with the colostomy bag he had to wear for the next nine months.
Just two years later he suffered another brush with death at a rehab facility in Switzerland.
Doctors administered a sedative which interacted with the opioids in his ravaged body causing his heart to stop beating.
They managed to resuscitate him but broke eight ribs in the process, forcing him to pull out of a role alongside Meryl Streep in the film Don’t Look Up, a lost opportunity he described as ‘heartbreaking’.
The two near-death experiences were a world away from his role as wise-cracking, hopelessly romantic Chandler Bing in Friends.
The role eventually earned him around $1 million per episode, making him one of the best-paid actors in the world.
But for Perry, fame came at an extremely high price, not least the $9 million he reckons he has spent on trying to remain sober.
Estimating that he made some 6,000 visits to Alcoholics Anonymous, he was also in rehab 15 times and underwent 12 surgeries to save his life.