Was Matthew Perry sober? Drug addiction struggles explored as Peter Hitchens debate video resurfaces amid former's death

On October 29, beloved actor Matthew Perry, best known for playing Chandler Bing in the popular sitcom Friends, unexpectedly died in his Los Angeles home.

Nearly a year before his passing, Perry wrote a memoir titled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing in which he shared details about his battle with addiction.

Perry also admitted to being addicted to drugs in 2013 in an interview with Peter Hitchens that recently resurfaced on X and went viral online.

As per Desert Sun, Matthew Perry had been sober for a year before his demise. He revealed in his memoir that he had visited 15 rehab centers and spent over $7 million on his path to sobriety.

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Matthew Perry talked about the dark chapters of his life in his book

Last year, Perry released his own book (Image via Instagram / @mattyperry4)

In a recent video uploaded on X (formerly known as Twitter) by user @JibbaJabb, Perry could be seen doing an interview with Peter Hitchens. The interview clip is from 2013. In the resurfaced video, he opened up about his drug addiction.

“I'm a drug addict. I'm a person that if I have a drink, I can't stop. And so it would be following your ideology that I'm choosing to do that, that I'm choosing..,” Perry said in the interview.

He added:

“It's an allergy to the body”.

Furthermore, Perry also spoke about his addiction in his powerful 2022 memoir.

The Friends star openee up on his turbulent upbringing, his long-speculated ups and downs with drug and alcohol usage, and his interactions with celebrities such as Julia Roberts and Valerie Bertinelli.

In the book, Perry also talked about his other addictions in detail. According to US Magazine, Perry developed a Vicodin addiction following a jet ski accident in 1997. After using opioids excessively and causing his colon to explode in 2019, he barely survived.

This entire thing ultimately resulted in alcohol abuse to the point where he was frequently hungover at work. His alcohol consumption led to pancreatitis, which required hospitalization in 2000.

He had another near-death experience at a Swiss recovery center just two years later in 2002.

According to Perry's book, his family was told by his doctors that he had a two percent chance of survival and that he was dependent on an electronic breathing and heart monitor (ECMO).

Perry claimed that the thought of having to wear a colostomy bag all the time was what motivated him to become sober. Perry, according to PEOPLE, never took his hard-earned sobriety for granted and was very proud of it. He continued to count every day, he told PEOPLE last year.

"It's important, but if you lose your sobriety, it doesn't mean you lose all that time and education," he said. "The only thing that changes is your sober date."

As per NBC Connecticut, Matthew Perry revealed in his book that he had battled drug and alcohol abuse since his teens and that he had spent over $7 million over the years trying to kick the habit. He'd been sober for eighteen months at the time of publishing the book.

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What happened to Matthew Perry?

Matthew Perry was discovered dead at a residence in his Los Angeles home on Saturday, according to TMZ, which cited law enforcement officials, who also verified Perry's passing to the Los Angeles Times.

That day, Matthew Perry had reportedly returned home and asked his assistant to do an errand for him after playing pickleball for two hours.

When he got back, his assistant checked on Perry in his jacuzzi and found him unconscious before dialing 911. The Los Angeles Police Department stated in a statement to Page Six that at 4:10 pm they were called to the 1800 block of Blue Sail Road in relation to a male victim's death.