On Tuesday’s episode of The Osbournes Podcast, TV personality Kelly Osbourne shared that she ran into the late Matthew Perry at her first ever AA meeting when she was just 19 years old.
“One time I was at a really, really horrible place, I was 19 years old and it was the first time I had ever been in treatment,” she explained.
“I was shitting myself about being in there and there were so many people, and I hated it. I didn’t think that I belonged, and I felt worthless, everything. I just wanted to run because I knew where I was, and I knew how to get home from there.
“He [Matthew Perry] came up to me, because I guess I was visibly struggling. He handed me a 60-second chip and he was like, ’Just hold this for 60 seconds. If you can get through that, you can get through the next 60 seconds.′
“I was like, ‘OK.’ And I kept that, I have it somewhere still. I just remember him being so kind.”
The Friends actor, who fought addiction his entire life, made it his life’s work to help others struggling with substance abuse.
Perry was predominantly known for his role as Chandler Bing in the hit sit-com series Friends, a role that saw him nominated for countless awards and winner of the Golden Derby Award for Drama Guest Actor in 2012, the Huading Award for Best Global Actor in a Television Series in 2013, the TV Guide Award’s Editor’s Choice in 2000.
Talking with The New York Times in 2022, Perry discussed his addiction in detail, which began at just 14 years old with Budweiser and Andrès Baby Duck wine. Later, this addiction grew to include vodka, Vicodin, Xanax and OxyContin (to name a few):
“I would fake back injuries. I would fake migraine headaches. I had eight doctors going at the same time,” Perry told The New York Times.
“I would wake up and have to get 55 Vicodin that day, and figure out how to do it. When you’re a drug addict, it’s all math. I go to this place, and I need to take three. And then I go to this place, and I’m going to take five because I’m going to be there longer. It’s exhausting but you have to do it or you get very, very sick. I wasn’t doing it to feel high or to feel good. I certainly wasn’t a partyer; I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin and watch a movie. That was heaven for me. It no longer is.”
Last year, speaking about himself, Perry said “The best thing about me, bar none, is that if somebody comes up to me and says: ‘I can’t stop drinking, can you help me?’ I can say yes and follow up and do it. That’s the best thing.”