The 53-year-old actor played Chandler Bing with Jennifer, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, and Courteney Cox on the NBC sitcom "Friends" from 1994 to 2004. However, he battled addiction during the height of his success and was astonished when Jennifer confronted him about his "hidden" issues.
Secrets destroy you, he warned. People like me die from secrets. I should have been the talk of the town at the moment. I was all by myself, meeting only drug traffickers in a pitch-black room. "We know you're drinking," Jenny said. Just picture how tense that period was.
The '17 Again' actor went on to say that Jennifer was the co-star who "reached out to him the most" and is so "grateful" to have had her support. Jennifer played waitress Rachel Green on the popular sitcom.
She was the one who reached out the most, he continued in a future segment for "Matthew Perry: The Diane Sawyer Interview. She has my sincere gratitude for that.
In his new memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing," Matthew—who reached recovery a number of years ago—has opened up about his difficulties with addiction. He claims that readers will be "surprised" by how "terrible" his struggles have been and how close he came to passing away.
They will likely be shocked by how horrible it was at times and how near to passing away I was, he said. In the book, I assert that, even though it wouldn't surprise anyone, my death would shock people. And having to live with that is a pretty scary thing. My aim is that through reading it, people would understand that this sickness affects everyone. Success or failure doesn't matter; the illness doesn't give a damn.
On Friday, October 28, "Matthew Perry: The Diane Sawyer Interview" will premiere on ABC News.
