Matthew Perry spent an estimated $7 million in his determined efforts to overcome addiction, his family has revealed.
The Friends star, who died in 2023 at the age of 54, entered rehab 15 times and went to approximately 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Throughout his life, he struggled with alcohol, prescription painkillers including Vicodin and OxyContin, and, later, ketamine.
His decades-long battle is explored in the upcoming Netflix documentary The One About Matthew Perry, which brings together relatives and close friends to revisit his meteoric rise, celebrated acting career and private struggles.
Netflix released an emotional trailer on Tuesday ahead of the three-part series’ October 27 premiere, which falls on the third anniversary of Perry’s death.
Perry’s sister, Mia Perry Bowick, said she had needed time before feeling prepared to discuss her brother’s life and the complexity of loving him through his addiction.
“I wanted to remember Matthew as a complete person — not only as Chandler, and not only as someone who struggled with addiction,” she said. “As his sister, he helped shape the person I am today, the person I aspire to be and the work I have chosen to dedicate my life to.”
Matthew Perry’s family say he spent $7 million in his efforts to get sober
Netflix’s The One About Matthew Perry examines the actor’s fame, career and years of addiction through the memories of family and close friends
Mia described her brother as warm-hearted and generous, saying he could still make people laugh and feel cared for even during his most difficult periods. She hopes the series will give those who knew or admired him a fuller understanding of his character and the legacy he left behind.
In the trailer, Mia observes that every great story contains both humor and sorrow — a combination that, she says, defined Matthew’s own life.
The trailer also features audio from an earlier interview in which Perry recalled the moment his career changed after he won the role of Chandler Bing on Friends.
“I was incredibly happy when I became famous,” Perry said. “Then I realized, ‘Oh no. This hasn’t fixed what’s going on inside me.’”
He added that fame had not delivered the relief he expected. Despite people warning him that continuing down the same path could cost him his life, Perry said he did not know how to stop.
Mia, who is a psychotherapist, said her brother often spoke about a deep sense of emptiness and loneliness that he was unable to overcome.
“He spent $7 million trying to become sober,” she said. “That shows how seriously he viewed his illness.”
Directed by Mary Robertson, the documentary features recollections from friends David Pressman and Roger Castillo, several of Perry’s former girlfriends and members of his family. It also includes photographs that have not previously been seen by the public.
Perry died at his Los Angeles home after drowning in a jacuzzi. His death followed a ketamine overdose.
Netflix shared a moving trailer before the three-part documentary arrives on October 27, the third anniversary of Perry’s death
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Perry faced addiction for much of his life, including during his Friends years, when his performance as Chandler Bing made him one of the world’s biggest television stars
The documentary includes previously unseen photographs from Matthew Perry’s family collection
The actor had battled addiction for many years, a struggle that intensified during his time on Friends, when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler.
His rise to fame alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer on the iconic Friends sitcom was overshadowed by personal struggles.
The actor openly admitted that his addiction issues frequently interfered with his work during those years and he laid bare his struggles in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
Matthew drinking began with beer and cheap wine when he was only 14 years old, and by his 21st birthday party it was already showing signs of being out of control.
He developed an addiction to Vicodin, a painkiller he took following a jet-ski accident soon after he joined the show. The maximum daily dosage is eight tablets but, by the end of the third season of Friends, he was swallowing around 55 a day.
In 1995, a former girlfriend with whom he was still friendly insisted he see a doctor about his addictions.
This led to the first of many stints in rehab. But even as he left, he knew he was going to drink again — lasting only nine weeks before once again hitting the bottle.
In 2018, his addiction to opioids had left him with pneumonia and a burst colon. Shortly after being admitted to hospital he slipped into a coma, which would last two weeks.
When he came round he discovered he had been fitted with the colostomy bag he had to wear for the next nine months.
Yet even this was not enough to keep him sober.
Two years later his heart stopped beating for five minutes after doctors at a luxury rehab facility in Switzerland administered a sedative which interacted with the opioids in his ravaged body.
They managed to resuscitate him but broke eight ribs in the process, forcing him to pull out of a role alongside Meryl Streep in the film Don’t Look Up.
After his tragic death, five people have been convicted for their part in his overdose, including the actor’s drug counsellor, his ‘Ketamine Queen’ drug dealer Jasveen Sangha, and two doctors.
Matthew’s one-time assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who injected the Friends star ‘repeatedly’ with ketamine on the day he died, was sentenced to more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, causing death.
- If you are struggling with substance abuse, you can contact Alcohol Anonymous on: 0800 917 7650 or email help@aamail.org, or for drug addiction call FRANK on 0300 123 6600.
