Matthew Perry revealed the high cost of his journey to sobriety. The 53-year-old Friends star shared the staggering amount of money he spent to get help for his addiction problem in a recent interview with The New York Times, while promoting his upcoming memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” .
“I’ve probably spent 9 million or something trying to get sober,” the actor estimated, while also sharing that he recently celebrated 18 months of sobriety.
The timeline indicated that Perry was recently sober during the Friends reunion special, which aired in May 2021.
Perry’s net worth is $120 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The actor earned $22,500 per episode on the first season of Friends, and his salary increased to $1 million per episode for the show’s last two seasons (9 and 10).
Perry’s remarks come just days after he revealed he nearly died from opioid addiction, detailing how his drug and alcohol addictions left him with a 2% survival rate after opioids caused him to die. his colon will burst and he will be left in a coma for two weeks.
Matthew will sit down with ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer for an exclusive interview, airing Friday, October 28 on ABC. The talk will also be available the next day on Hulu.
In a preview of the interview, Perry revealed that Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his drinking, revealing to the actor that she and the rest of the cast “know you’re drinking.”
She also shared Aniston’s continued support during her recovery: “(Aniston) was the one who came the closest,” she revealed. “I’m very grateful to her for that.”
Perry’s drug addiction problem was revealed last Thursday during her interview with People magazine, while discussing her upcoming memoir.
During his interview, Perry, best known for playing Chandler Bing on Friends, opened up about his decades-long battle to break free of addictions.
He revealed that he had to undergo 14 stomach surgeries and had to wear a colostomy bag for nine months. His doctor told him that he could wear a colostomy bag for the rest of his life if he takes drugs again, so he avoids relapsing.
The actor did not reveal how long he was sober, but said he is now “pretty healthy” and chooses to “count each day.” Matthew also claimed that he had to go to rehab 15 times in an attempt to get clean, his first fight being in 1997 and then again in 2001 and 2011.
“The doctors told my family I had a two percent chance of living. They put me on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that. I wanted to share when I was safe from going back to the dark side of it all. I had to wait until I was completely sober and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction to write it all down. And most importantly, I was pretty sure it would help to people,” Matthew said.
The actor said his alcohol addiction started when he was 24 while starring in Friends, adding that he was “entrenched in a lot of problems” at 34.
Mathhew revealed that at one point he was taking 55 Vicodin pills a day while filming Friends, noting that he had dropped to 128 pounds but “didn’t know how to stop.”
He assured that his co-stars in Friends “were understanding” and “patient”. During the ninth season, Matthew was sober; that was the year he was also nominated for Best Actor.
Matthew Perry played Chandler Big from 1994 to 2004 on Friends alongside co-stars David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow.
The show ran for 10 seasons and turned its leads into stars. They reunited in 2021, the first time after 17 years since the show ended, for a special. Matthew’s memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing” will be available from November 1.
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