• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • FFS PRODUCTIONS
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Matthew Perry says he's spent around $9 million trying to get sober

Home> Entertainment

Published 05:22 24 Oct 2022 GMT+1

Matthew Perry says he's spent around $9 million trying to get sober

The Friends star also revealed what went down when his co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his alcohol abuse.

Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang

Friends star Matthew Perry has revealed the eye-watering price tag that came with getting sober.

The 53-year-old sat down with The New York Times for an interview to promote his upcoming memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.

It was during this sit down that he revealed the jaw-dropping amount of money he has sunk into his own sobriety.

"I've probably spent USD$9 million (AUD$14.1 million, £7.9 million) or something trying to get sober," the actor estimated.

Advert

He then shared that he recently celebrated 18 months of being sober.

The cast of Friends with Matthew Perry on the far left. Warner Bros. Television.
The cast of Friends with Matthew Perry on the far left. Warner Bros. Television.

In a trailer for his upcoming sit-down with Diane Sawyer for ABC News, the veteran reporter asked about the time fellow Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his alcohol abuse.

"Imagine how scary a moment that was. She was the one who reached out the most, you know. I'm really grateful to her for that," Perry said in the clip.

The Friends star also revealed that at one point he was taking '55 Vicodin a day'.

Advert

"At the time I should have been the toast of the town," Perry said in the clip. "[Instead] I was in a dark room meeting nothing but drug dealers and completely alone."

Speaking to People, Perry revealed that his alcoholism was just taking root when he scored the role that would change his life on the astronomically popular sitcom.

Over the years, his addiction escalated, and, in 2018, it nearly cost him his life.

While Perry told the public that he had been hospitalised for a gastrointestinal perforation, the harsh truth was that his colon had burst from using opioids.

He was hospitalised for a total of five months, two weeks of which he was in a coma.

Advert

Perry then had to wear a colostomy bag for nine months.

He told People that his Friends co-stars were all 'understanding', 'patient', and supportive.

Perry said: "It's like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up. They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own."

He added: "That's kind of what the cast did for me."

Perry played Chandler Bing from 1994 to 2004 on Friends alongside co-stars David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow.

Advert

The popular sitcom aired for 10 seasons and made the cast household names.

Matthew's memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing is available on November 1.

Matthew Perry – The Diane Sawyer Interview airs on October 28 at 9pm on ABC.

Featured Image Credit: DC Stock / Alamy Stock Photo. Sydney Alford / Alamy Stock Photo

Topics: Friends, Celebrity, TV and Film

Rachel Lang
Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang is a Digital Journalist at LADbible. During her career, she has interviewed Aussie PM Malcolm Turnbull in the lead up to the 2016 federal election, ran an editorial campaign on the war in Yemen, and reported on homelessness in the lead-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding in Windsor. She also once wrote a yarn on the cheese and wine version of Fyre Festival.

X

@rlangjournalist

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

15 hours ago
17 hours ago
18 hours ago
  • Santiago Felipe/Getty Images
    15 hours ago

    Julia Fox receives major backlash over her Halloween costume

    The actress has hit back at the criticism over her controversial outfit

    Entertainment
  • Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
    17 hours ago

    Meghan Trainor's fitness coach shares singer's dramatic body transformation after Mounjaro admission

    The singer's body transformation made headlines earlier this year

    Entertainment
  • Bryan Steffy/Getty Images
    18 hours ago

    Charlie Sheen sets record straight about hooking up with men in the height of his drug addiction

    He's said that sex is a 'broad category'

    Entertainment
  • Supplied
    18 hours ago

    Actor with visible difference explains why Halloween affects them psychologically

    Beau Bradfield told LADbible how certain Halloween costumes can be 'harmful and damaging' to those with visible differences

    Entertainment
  • Friends star claims she received a 'beautiful' sign from Matthew Perry after his death
  • 'Ketamine Queen' Jasveen Sangha pleads guilty to supplying Matthew Perry with fatal dose
  • Matthew Perry fans in tears after ITV doc exposes his ‘heartbreaking’ final days
  • Kelly Clarkson loses it as Kristen Bell says Adam Brody referred to pregnant sex scenes as 'our threesome'