Mathew Perry, better known for his role as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom Friends has shared his life-learning lessons.
Recently, in an interview with People magazine for its cover story, Mathew revealed one of the unforgettable moments in his life when he almost died due to his struggles with alcoholism and opioid addiction.
At the age of 49, he almost died after his colon burst from opioid overuse and had spent almost two weeks in a coma, five months in a hospital, and also nine months using a colostomy bag.
He admitted that he was put on an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.” Even the doctors said that he had only a 2 percent chance of living in 2018.
“I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again, “I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people.”: Mathew said.
It was such a hard phase for him, he wasn’t even ready to talk about his ordeal until now as discussing it publically was really difficult. But still, he revealed a lot about his life and addiction journey. He said that he’s been to rehab over 15 times and undergone 14 surgeries.
Perry was the first cast on Friends at the age of 24, and at that point of time, it was just the start of his alcohol addiction. He admitted: “I could handle it, kind of.
Since the series was an international hit, it ran for 10 seasons over 10 years, while at some point, Perry admitted that were years that he 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 said, ‘That should tell me something,’” he said. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, ‘That should tell me something.'”
Well, Perry tried really hard to hide his condition, and his dramatic changes, but his castmates of Friends were understanding, and patient. Perry even called his castmates “Penguins” in nature as they care a lot for each and every one. They even got together in April 2021 to film their emotional and star-studded reunion special.
Since Mathew has gone through such a rough phase, now he is trying to help others who have struggled with addiction as well. He still feels lucky enough that he is alive right now as other than him, five more people were on an ECMO machine that night and he was the only one who survived.
In the end, he admitted: “What I’m most surprised with is my resilience. The way that I can bounce back from all of this torture and awfulness. Wanting to tell the story, even though it’s a little scary to tell all your secrets in a book, I didn’t leave anything out. Everything’s in there.”
Mitzi Francis is a content editor at The Landscape Insight. With a background in journalism and a passion for storytelling, Mitzi brings a unique perspective to his role at the publication. He is committed to delivering high-quality, informative content to his readers. You can reach Mitzi at mitzi@landscapeinsight.com or on our website contact us page.
