The entertainment world was shaken on Saturday night (October 28) when news of Matthew Perry’s death broke. The Friends star was found unresponsive in his hot tub in the backyard of his Pacific Palisades home in Los Angeles, the victim of an apparent drowning. Perry, who was open about his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse over the years, had just wrapped up a two-hour pickle ball game at Riviera near his house.
While there were no illicit drugs found at the scene, TMZ reports investigators discovered anti-anxiety, anti-depressant and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) drugs inside the home. The Los Angeles County Coroner will conduct a toxicology exam to determine if any drugs were present in Perry’s system at the time of his death, but that will take weeks, if not months.
In the meantime, his family—specifically mother Suzanne Morrison, biological father John Bennett Perry and step-father Keith Morrison—has issued a statement about Perry’s death, saying, “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother. Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend. You all meant so much to him and we appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love.”
All three of them arrived at Perry’s home just hours after the drowning occurred. The coroner’s van was also photographed on site as was Perry’s body being wheeled into it. At this point, investigators can’t rule out a drug overdose nor can they confirm one, but Perry’s 2022 book, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir, quoted Perry as saying, “My friends call me Matty and I should be dead.” His addiction to the pain killer Vicodin nearly killed him. Speaking to NBC News in an interview, Perry told Diane Sawyer his addiction was always waiting to get him isolated so he could fill his time by using drugs, in which case he admitted, “You lose to the disease.”
Matthew Perry also told Sawyer he would sometimes ingest 55 pills a day and detoxed more than 60 times, spending half his life in rehab or sober living, while attending thousands of AA meetings.
Of course, Perry has been a trending Twitter topic since his death, with celebrities and fans alike coming out in droves to express their grief. Eerily, his last Instagram post was taken six days ago in the same hot tub he drowned in. He wrote, “Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good? I’m Mattman.” See it above.