“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew,” read a joint statement written in the wake of Matthew Perry’s death last weekend by Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc. “We were more than just castmates. We are a family. There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
The death of Matthew Perry, at 54, who was found unresponsive in a hot tub at home in Los Angeles, was the sad culmination of a troubled life. As he revealed in a memoir published last year, he was alcoholic from the age of 14, had attended 6,000 AA meetings and couldn’t remember whole seasons of his TV career owing to his addictions to drink and opioid prescription pills.