What was Matthew Perry addicted to? FRIENDS star reveals he spent two weeks in a coma at height of his addiction

In an interview with People Magazine, published on Wednesday, October 19, American actor Matthew Perry opened up about his struggles with alcohol and opioid abuse throughout his career.

The 53-year-old star revealed that he almost died a few years back after suffering from a gastrointestinal perforation due to opioid overuse. He added that the doctors told his family that he had a "2 percent chance to live."

"I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary. No one survives that."

Matthew Perry was comatose for two weeks, spent five months in the hospital after his colon burst, and even had to use a colostomy bag for nine months. The star underwent 14 surgeries on his stomach as well.

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Matthew Perry's body weight dropped massively while shooting for Friends

Matthew Perry revealed that at one point, while shooting for Friends, he was consuming 55 Vicodin pills a day, which drastically reduced his weight to 128 pounds.

"I didn't know how to stop. If the police came over to my house and said, 'If you drink tonight, we're going to take you to jail,' I'd start packing. I couldn't stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older."

At the age of 24, Matthew Perry was cast as Chandler Bing in Friends, and his alcohol addiction started surfacing at the time.

"I could handle it, kind of. But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble. But there were years that I was sober during that time. Season 9 was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, 'That should tell me something.'"

Now, after overcoming his struggles and being sober, Matthew Perry is determined to help others with their addiction. Talking about his sobriety, he states that nothing changes except for "your sober date."

"You know everything you knew before, as long as you were able to fight your way back without dying, you learn a lot."

As per Us Magazine, Perry's Vicodin addiction began in 1997 after a jet ski accident which led to his alcohol addiction. He first checked into rehab the same year but briefly stayed sober.

In 2000, he was in the hospital for two weeks for alcohol-related pancreatitis and was detoxing by the end of that year. However, he checked into rehab the following year while shooting for Serving Sara.

In 2011, Matthew Perry announced that he was taking a break to focus on his sobriety. Seven years later, Perry spent two weeks in a coma after his colon burst. In 2021, he returned to shoot for the Friends Reunion, where the director of the special film, Ben Winston, stated it was great to work with him.

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