BEVERLY HILLS, CA – OCTOBER 14: Actor Matthew Perry arrives at the 9th Annual Lily Clair Foundation Gala Dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 14, 2006 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
For years, Matthew Perry has been open about his path to sobriety.
When he released his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, he revealed he had been clean for 18 months.
Things seemed to be going well until his shocking death in October of 2023.
The Friends star was “sober and clean” when the two friends met for lunch a day before his death, Athena Crosby told KTLA 5 News in November.
But those close to Perry tell a different story.
In an exclusive interview with US Weekly, sources say he lied about his sobriety during the promotional tour for the book leading up to his death. These sources also claim that Perry was abusing prescription drugs.
“Everyone close to Matthew was saying he died of an overdose.” The source told the magazine. “The way he dealt with that was isolation. Since Friends ended, he was in a good financial position and didn’t have to work, so he created an environment to use.”
Perry’s friends said they were concerned he was not receiving care for his mental health, and pointed to his abusive behavior, particularly toward his friend and sober companion Morgan Moses.
A source said: “He threw her against the wall, threw something at her and pushed her onto the bed.” “This time, he turned threats and hints of violence into actual violence.”
After the alleged incident, the source claimed, “He kept saying, ‘If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done it.'”
These sources claimed that the relationship between the two became tense after that, even after Perry’s attempts to calm things down.
“Morgan was his best friend, and he burned him to the ground. He pushed her to the absolute breaking point,” the source said. “Everyone wanted him to be okay, and he was terrible. He would get angry over little things and then twist the narrative around what actually happened to make himself the victim. (He will) escalate the situation until he can say: “Poor thing.” I was hurt, and you abandoned me. And get people out of hell.”
One source described Perry as “manipulative” and said: “He was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive.” “All he knew how to do was cause pain and play the victim,” they continued.
Another source said the “17 Again” actor “wasn’t a terrible human being. (But) he was so warped in his addiction that he wasn’t himself and wasn’t the man he should have been.”
Sources also state that Perry’s disturbing streak continued when he claimed to be sober, as happened during his book tour.
“He wanted to sell books. Everything was manufactured and manipulated. The truth didn’t matter.”
Perry also lied to his “Friends” co-stars, according to a source.
One person said: “He lied to them all about a lot of things over the years. He had a lot of respect for them, but he (didn’t always) have positive things to say about them. He lied to them all about a lot of things over the years.” He felt inferior (to them), so when he spoke negatively, it came from insecurity.
Sources claim that Perry’s final years were spent mostly alone.
“He was living in confinement and not communicating with (people),” they said. “That was his pattern when he used it. He would isolate himself from everyone.”
The person claimed that the “dope” actor was disappointed with how his life was going.
“He wanted a family and couldn’t find that person to settle down with. It was a story of loneliness and how having all the money and fame can’t save anyone,” the source said.
KTLA 5 reached out to Perry’s former team for response to these allegations and did not receive a response.
In December, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner revealed that the actor died from “acute effects” of the drug ketamine.
The medical examiner’s report said that “high levels of ketamine” were found in Perry’s “postmortem blood samples,” adding that “the major fatal effects would be from cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression.”
While Perry had undergone treatment with ketamine, the coroner found that the amount found in his system “could not have been from this infusion therapy, as the half-life of ketamine is three to four hours or less.”
The 54-year-old died on October 28 at his home in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Authorities confirmed that Perry was already dead when first responders arrived to find him propped up in a hot tub after someone else had initially discovered him.