Matthew Perry’s Friends costar breaks silence on tragic death at 54 as she shares she feels ‘blessed’ to have shared so many ‘creative moments’ with the beloved actor: ‘What a loss’

Matthew Perry’s Friends co-star Maggie Wheeler mourned the loss of her former on-screen boyfriend, whom she dated from the show’s second through third seasons.

While paying tribute to the beloved actor, who died at the age of 54 from an apparent drowning accident, the 62-year-old performer shared on Instagram a photo of their characters looking blissful from their hit sitcom, which aired between 1994 and 2004 was broadcast.

‘What a loss. The world will miss you, Mathew Perry,” she captioned the photo, which showed her looking adoringly at him as she portrayed her character, Janice Litman-Goralnik.

The mother of two continued: “The joy you brought to so many in your too-short life will live on. I feel so blessed by every creative moment we shared. ♥️’

Within an hour, she received more than 35,367 likes and nearly 2,000 comments from her 111,000 Instagram followers.

While Perry’s character eventually settles for Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), he and Janice had one of the longest relationships on the show.

Her character was known for her nasal voice as she shouted her catchphrase, “Oh my God.”

The pair last publicly reunited when they appeared on the 2021 Friends reunion special, hosted by James Corden.

Aside from Wheeler, none of the main Friends cast members have publicly responded to the news of Perry’s death.

On Saturday, TMZ reported that law enforcement sources told the outlet that Perry was found in a Los Angeles home on Saturday after first responders were called to the scene for cardiac arrest.

Sources claim he was found in a jacuzzi at the house, but no drugs were found at the scene and there was no evidence of foul play.

The Los Angeles Times reported that authorities responded to his home around 4 p.m., where he was discovered unresponsive.

A source told the newspaper that there were signs of foul play and that robbery-homicide detectives are investigating his death.

In his latest post to his Instagram, shared earlier this week, the star shared images of him in his pool and said: ‘Oh, so the warm water swirling makes you feel good? I’m Mattman.’

Perry has been openly outspoken about his problems with drugs and alcohol after first entering rehab in 1997 for what was said to be an addiction to painkillers following a jet ski accident.

After this first period, he went to rehab again in 2001 and 2011. In 2016, he told an interviewer that he doesn’t remember filming three seasons of Friends.

An old friend of Perry’s – who was recovering with him – told DailyMail.com: ‘Everyone is in a total state of shock. People are crying on the phone and struggling to accept this news.

“It’s no secret he’s struggled with drugs and alcohol for years, but the last time I spoke to him, which was in recent weeks, he seemed to be in a good place.

‘He was cheerful and sounded down-to-earth and positive.

“He had been to rehab seventeen times and almost died from opioid abuse, but he was someone who was sincere about taking his life and his sobriety one day at a time.

‘It’s such tragic news. Everyone prays he doesn’t relapse. Matt was a really nice guy. He was always the first to welcome newcomers to the group and always volunteered to help and serve.

“We are all struggling to come to terms with this terrible news.”

The Friends star exposed the culmination of his terrible battle with drug and alcohol addiction, which nearly cost him his life, in a memoir titled ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir.’

Perry also revealed that his colon ruptured as a result of his opioid addiction when he was 49.

The doctors gave him only a two percent chance of survival and he was in a coma for two weeks, followed by another month in the hospital.

Perry required fourteen surgeries to repair all the abdominal damage, and he admitted to going to rehab fifteen times over the years in hopes of kicking his drug addiction.

At one point during his Friends career, he admits he was taking 55 Vicodin a day and only losing 128 pounds, yet he still “didn’t know how to quit.”

He told an interviewer in 2016 that he doesn’t remember filming three seasons of Friends.

“I had this weird rule that I would never drink on set,” Perry said. ‘But I went to work in extreme cases with a hangover. It’s so terrible to feel like this and also have to work and be funny.’

He even revealed that he would go to open houses – not because he was interested in buying real estate, but to see if he could steal drugs from medicine cabinets.

Perry was born on August 19, 1969 in Massachusetts, grew up in Ottawa and was raised by his mother, Suzanne Morrison, a Canadian writer and former press aide to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Morrison and Perry’s father were married from 1968 to 1970 and she later married Canadian broadcast journalist Keith Morrison, who has been on Dateline for decades, in 1981.

In Canada, Perry was a top tennis player, but at age 15 he moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his father, John Bennett Perry, an actor known for several shows including Falcon Crest and later Old Spice commercials.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Perry landed roles in some of the most popular TV shows of the past decades, such as Charles in Charge, Who’s The Boss?, Growing Pains and Beverly Hills, 90210.

He also had a role in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, a 1988 film starring River Phoenix.

The movie was “one of the best experiences I ever had being 16 years old and being all alone in Chicago with no parents around,” Perry told BuzzFeed. “I knew I wanted to act.”

He told The New York Times in 2002 that he sought fame. ‘Steam came out of my ears, I wanted to be famous so badly.

‘You want the attention, you want the money and you want the best seat in the restaurant. I didn’t think what the consequences would be.’

Perry’s dream of widespread recognition came to fruition with the NBC sitcom Friends, which followed the lives of six people trying to find their way in New York City in their twenties.

Audiences loved the show throughout its ten seasons and continue to do so today, despite the show ending more than 15 years ago.

During Friends, Perry also starred in films such as Fools Rush In and The Whole Nine Yards.

After the series, he appeared in several television shows, but did not achieve the longevity and success of Friends. He continued to play roles in films such as 2009’s 17 Again.

Perry never married and ended his engagement to Molly Hurwitz, a talent manager, in 2021.

He dated several famous actresses, including Julia Roberts and Lizzy Caplan.