Matthew Perry, 53, is one of TV’s biggest stars after his 10 seasons of playing Chandler Bing on the hit show “Friends.” But he does not watch any of the show’s reruns, and the reason is heartbreaking.
In an interview with radio host Tom Power in Toronto, Perry explained that it is difficult for him to watch old episodes of the iconic TV show because they remind him of his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction.
“I didn’t watch the show and haven’t watched the show, because I could go, ‘Drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine,’” he said, gesturing as if to point to himself in different episodes over the years.
“I could tell season by season by how I looked,” he continued. “I don’t think anybody else can, but I certainly could, and that’s why I don’t want to watch it, because that’s what I see, that’s what I notice when I watch it.”
Perry wrote about this in his recent memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
“If you gauge my weight from season to season — when I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I am skinny, it’s pills,” he wrote. “When I have a goatee, it’s lots of pills.”
Perry talked with People as well and shared that he has been to rehab 15 times and suffered major health consequences due to his addiction over the years. At one point, his colon burst because of opioid overuse.
Perry told The New York Times that he now has 18 months of sobriety.
Perry has said that he may start watching the sitcom in the future.
“I think I’m going to start to watch it because it really has been an incredible — first of all, it was an incredible ride — but it’s been an incredible thing to watch it touch the hearts of different generations,” he said.
“It was really funny, and all the people were nice,” he added. “I’ve been too worried about this and, you know, I want to watch ‘Friends,’ too.”
