Matthew Perry was sober and very active in his recovery programme, even speaking at meetings and sponsoring other addicts, leading up to his tragic death last weekend, DailyMail.com has learned.
A longtime member of Alcoholics Anonymous and a close friend of the late television star confirmed that Perry had abstained from drinking and “seemed to be doing well” before he was found dead at his Pacific Palisades home on Saturday.
The 54-year-old Friends alum, who has spoken candidly about his road to recovery and numerous relapses over the years, expressed fears that he may have fallen off the wagon again after he was thought to have drowned in his hot tub.
But a fellow member of his recovery program told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview: ‘Matty didn’t drink. He was a big part of our AA community. He attended meetings, spoke at rallies and worked with a handful of newcomers.
“He had a sponsor and was a sponsor. He seemed to be doing well.”
Matthew Perry, pictured last November, had been off booze and ‘seemed to be doing well’ in the run-up to his death, a fellow member of his AA program told DailyMail.com
Perry had made numerous public appearances while promoting his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, in which he talked about overcoming addiction, a major theme in his book.
In his latest Instagram post, shared earlier this week, the star was seen hanging out in his hot tub, where he was later found dead on Saturday.
The insider said the actor was focused on helping others battle addiction and had recently expressed an interest in sharing his story through public speaking.
‘Matty said he wanted to go back to the universities and talk about alcoholism. That was his gift. He could speak so well and motivate people,” the source added.
“It was important for him to reach the younger generation and spread his Don’t Give Up message. He really lived by those words.
‘He always made people laugh, even during meetings. But he was also spiritual, not religious, but spiritual. He spoke and knew this was his mission. To help other people, to give them hope.
“Matty will forever be the definition of hope because he never gave up. He turned his life around and helped countless people in the program. More than he could imagine.”
According to initial reports of the TV icon’s death, Perry was found unconscious in a jacuzzi, but no drugs were found at the scene and there were no indications of foul play.
It is believed he drowned, although an official cause of death has not yet been determined and an initial autopsy result has been ‘deferred’, with toxicology reports to follow.
In the months leading up to his death, Perry had made numerous public appearances in which he spoke about overcoming addiction, a major theme in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
In an interview last year promoting his memoir, Perry offered advice to those struggling with addiction issues and encouraged others that change is possible.
According to the source, the actor (pictured in April) was focused on helping others battle addiction and wanted to share his story through public speaking.
One of his oldest friends, Hank Azaria, paid tribute to the beloved star in the wake of his death, revealing that Perry helped him get sober
In his last interview in November 2022 promoting his book, he emphasized that, contrary to popular belief, “people can change” if they are willing to put in the effort.
He said: ‘I want people to understand that they are not alone and that there are other people who feel exactly the way they do.
‘That their behavior is not insane, that they have a disease and that it is not their fault. There is a very famous rule that people don’t change. I happen to know that people change.
‘And I see that every day. I see people getting better. I see the lights come on in their eyes and they get through the horrible part of the addiction and the detox and can live a normal life as long as they do a certain amount of work every day.”
Dozens of celebrities and former co-stars have paid tribute to the beloved actor in the wake of his death, including friend and comedian Hank Azaria, who credited Perry with helping him get sober.
In an emotional Instagram video on Sunday, Azaria recalled how Perry was “the first friend I made in Los Angeles.”
“When I moved there, I was 21, he was 16. We did a pilot together called Morning Maggie, which never saw the light of day, but Matthew and I became very good friends,” Azaria added.
‘He lived to laugh and every night he was… he was like a genius. He started weaving comedic threads together, just hanging out,” Azaria added.
“A joke here, a joke there, a joke here, a joke there, and by the end of the night he wove them all together in a kind of crescendo of hilarity,” Azaria explained.
In an interview with Diane Sawyer that aired almost exactly a year before his death, Perry revealed that his road to addiction began in his early teens when he drank a “whole bottle” of wine.
The actor detailed the beginning of his battle with substance abuse in the October 2022 interview
Perry’s five Friends co-stars released a joint official statement on Monday regarding the actor’s tragic death at the age of 54
He added: “Most nights you spent with Matthew you were crying laughing by the end. I really loved him. “Many of us close to him really thought we had lost him long ago to drugs and alcohol.”
“As he documented in his book, in his autobiography, there was so much suffering. I had to pick up that biography and put it down eleven times, it was so painful for me to read,” Azaria continued.
“It was real… as his friend who loved him, I knew he had to suffer, but the details of it were just devastating.”
The Simpsons actor revealed that he has been sober for 17 years and that “the night I went to AA, Matthew took me in.”
“The entire first year I was sober, we both went to meetings together, and he was such a great… I had to tell him this, as a sober person he was so caring and giving and wise and he completely helped me be sober,” Azaria added.
“And I really wish he could have found it in himself to go through sober life more consistently, but as a person in recovery it was hard to read that too.”
He continued, “I just felt so bad. I mean, I knew he was in and out for years, he documented it all publicly and then in the book, but it’s heartbreaking for those of us who loved him and knew him very well personally. We just missed him.
‘It’s one of the terrible things about this disease: it just takes away the person you love, and you know, professionally he was so brilliant as an actor.
“I wish me and the world could have had what the rest of his career would have been,” Azaria concluded.