Matthew Perry’s on-screen mum praises Friends star for taking addiction battle public

Matthew Perry’s on-screen mum on Friends, Morgan Fairchild, has paid tribute to the late star for opening up about his battle with addiction.

Fairchild played Chandler Bing’s mother on the show and has now spoken following his shock death at the age of 54.

Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home over the weekend.

Morgan appeared on CNN to remember the Hollywood star, calling him “terribly brave” for writing of his substance abuse and alcoholism in his book Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing.

“I think one of the bravest things that he did in his career and his life was to go public, to write this book, to reach out to other people, to try to be of help to other people,” Fairchild, 73, said.

“And that was one of the most endearing things about him, as they said in the intro, not only was he always the funniest guy in the room and the quickest wit and the most happy and up seemingly - but also one of the kindest.

“Having had friends and family with addiction problems in my life, people that I cared about, I know how hard that is for the addict and also for the people who love them.”

Fairchild went on to say: “I thought it was terribly brave of him to want that to be part of his legacy as a human being.”

Throughout his life, Perry struggled with alcoholism and opioids, but it’s believed he was sober shortly before his death.

He first went to rehab in 1997 for addiction to painkillers following a jet ski accident. He would return to rehab in 2001 and in 2011, and revealed in a 2016 interview that he didn’t recall filming three seasons of Friends.

Perry hid his struggles from the public for years, but opened up in his 2022 memoir.

Fairchild played Perry’s mum on the show, appearing in five episodes between 1995 and 2001.

Recalling her first meeting with Perry, she said: “I just remember Matthew from the first day on the set.

“The show was not a huge hit yet when I started working on it and he came bounding over to me and literally bounding like a big puppy and said, ‘Oh, you won’t remember me, but I used to visit you on the set of Flamingo Road and Falcon Crest with my dad’.”

She continued to say of Perry: “There was that friendly and wonderful puppy dog kind of feel about Matthew. He was such a warm and wonderful and funny and creative young man.”