Jennifer Aniston recently opened up about Matthew Perry’s unexpected death in late October. He was in a good place, she said, happy and healthy.
“He’d given up smoking, was getting fit. All I know is he was happy,” Aniston revealed in a tearful interview with Variety. Reese Witherspoon, her co-star on “The Morning Show,” was there to offer support.
Aniston was in touch with Perry that very morning. “Funny Matty. He wasn’t in pain or struggling. He was happy,” she said.
Aniston, the 54-year-old “Cake” actress, was adamant that Perry, her cherished “Friends” co-star, hadn’t relapsed. This was despite speculation due to his past battles with drug and alcohol addiction.
“He was really healthy, and getting healthier. He was on a journey. He worked so hard,” she shared.
Perry had a tough lot in life, according to Aniston. “I miss him dearly. We all do. Boy, he made us laugh really hard,” she said.
The “Murder Mystery” actress gave Perry credit for bringing a unique speech pattern to his character, Chandler Bing. This became a defining trait of the role.
“His way of speaking created a whole different world,” she told the trade publication. “We went with his lead, in a way. It just added something to our joy.”
Perry passed away on Oct. 28 in an apparent drowning in his hot tub. He was 54. The official cause of death is still unknown, as the coroner is awaiting toxicology results.
Days after Perry’s death, family and friends held a private memorial at a Los Angeles cemetery. Aniston, according to sources, was “struggling” with the loss of her longtime friend. She reportedly “kept to herself” at his funeral after being the first to arrive.
“It’s a second massive loss in less than a year, with the one-year anniversary of her dad’s death just around the corner,” an insider shared. “She still hasn’t fully regained her footing from that, and now this has just completely knocked her off her feet.”
A week after Perry’s family laid him to rest, Aniston and her co-stars each paid tribute to their former co-star in individual posts.
“For Matty, he KNEW he loved to make people laugh. As he said himself, if he didn’t hear the ‘laugh’ he thought he was going to die,” Aniston shared in her heart-wrenching homage. “His life literally depended on it. And boy did he succeed in doing just that. He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard.”