29 October 2023 , 10:04
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Matthew Perry made a heartbreaking premonition about his own death - just 12 months before he died.
The Friends star - who played Chandler Bing on the US series - passed away overnight at the age of 54 after reportedly being found unresponsive in his hot tub. He was said to be found by his assistant who had popped out to run an errand for the star just after Matthew had returned from a pickleball session earlier that day.
In his book, which was released in October 2022, he opened up about his alcohol and drug addiction. Writing in his memoir, which was titled 'Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing', he shared: "Not only do I have the disease, but I also have it bad. I have it as bad as you can have it, in fact. It’s back-to-the-wall time all the time. It’s going to kill me."
Matthew with his Friends co-stars (NBCUniversal via Getty Images)Matthew has been open about his addiction battles, explaining he struggled to watch the show that shot him to international stardom as it reminded him of how much he was struggling.
He said: "I didn’t watch the show, and haven’t watched the show, because I could go, drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine. I could tell season by season by how I looked. That’s why I don’t wanna watch it, because that’s what I see.
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"I was taking 55 Vicodin a day, I weighed 128 lbs, I was on Friends getting watched by 30 million people - and that’s why I can’t watch the show, ‘cause I was brutally thin'. I had a rule that I would never drink or do drugs while working. Because I had too much respect for the five people I was working with. So I was never wasted while working. The thing that always makes me cry... is that it’s not fair. It’s not fair that I had to go through this disease while the other five didn’t."
The show came to an end in 2004 after 10 years, with Matthew explaining he felt numb over the end of the show. Whilst others were emotional, he admitted he felt numbness but did not know if that was due to the drugs or because he was "generally dead inside".
Matthew said he had hoped to be healed enough to watch the show one day, as he admitted: "I think I’m gonna start to watch it, because it really has been an incredible thing to watch it touch the hearts of different generations."
*Frank offers confidential advice about drugs and addiction (email [email protected], message 82111 or call 0300 123 6600) or the NHS has information about getting help.
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