The pain of losing Friends actor Matthew Perry last October at age 54 has remained fresh for his loved ones amidst a lengthy investigation into the circumstances that surrounded his drowning. Five people were charged last week in connection with the actor’s death, months after an autopsy determined that Perry had large amounts of ketamine in his system that led to his death. The actor’s friends allegedly have “a lot of feelings” about the information that has come out about what Perry was going through.
Matthew Perry’s personal assistant, two doctors, a drug dealer called the “Ketamine Queen” and a distributor were charged on August 15 with allegedly helping the Friends star procure the drugs that ultimately killed him. Details were made public about the severity of Perry’s condition, which has reportedly been tough for the people who cared about him. The insider told People:
The arrests have brought back a lot of feelings. Matthew did have true friends that loved and cared about him. They would have all tried to help him if he’d reached out. It makes them sad that he was surrounded by enablers.
Matthew Perry’s former co-star Jennifer Aniston, who worked with him for 10 years on one of the best sitcoms of all time, has said she was texting with the Chandler Bing actor the morning of his death, and Friends creator Marta Kauffman also said she kept in contact with him and had FaceTimed him a couple of weeks prior. Both reported him as being happy and healthy.
However, a timeline of Matthew Perry’s final days painted a more somber picture of the actor’s circumstances. As part of a plea deal, Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa provided authorities with details, including that The Whole Nine Yards star had been found unresponsive two other times before his October 28, 2023, death.
According to reports, one doctor wrote a text message saying, “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” and Kenneth Iwamasa said $55,000 of Matthew Perry’s money was spent on ketamine in the last couple of months of his life. The final words known to be spoken by the actor were instructions for his assistant to “shoot me up with a big one” after he’d asked Iwamasa to prepare the jacuzzi.
In addition to Kenneth Iwamasa, the other four people charged in Matthew Perry’s death are Dr. Mark Chavez, Dr. Salvador Plasencia, Eric Fleming — a supposed distributor — and Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “Ketamine Queen.”
Apparently details like this and the arrests have resurfaced some complicated emotions for those who considered Matthew Perry a friend and for those who knew him better for delivering some of Friends’ funniest lines as Chandler.
The actor was open about his struggles with addiction, using his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing to reflect on just how bad things got for him while filming Friends and how he nearly died during a medical procedure when the hydrocodone he'd taken reacted with the anesthesia. He even wrote about ketamine in his book, saying, “Has my name written all over it — they might as well have called it ‘Matty.’”
Nearly a year later, Matthew Perry’s death still feels like a huge loss for many fans. If you want to remember the actor in a happier light, see how you can watch some of Perry’s best movies and TV shows, and Friends is available to stream with a Max subscription.
