Matthew Perry has revealed he had “emergency” surgery days before the Friends reunion.
The original cast of the fan-favourite sitcom reunited back in April for a HBO Max special, hosted by James Corden.
Speaking to Diane Sawyer on ABC’s Nightline, the actor said he had to undergo emergency dental surgery, which “made [his] mouth feel like fire”.
At the time of the reunion, Matthew’s slurred speech sparked concern amongst fans who were worried about his health and well-being.
“It sounded like my voice was off,” he said, but he knew he “couldn’t not show up” to the highly anticipated special.
“So, what I chose to do was just go and do the best that I could,” he told Diane, who noted the “wear and tear on his voice and speech.”
Matthew is set to open up about his battle with addiction and alcoholism in his upcoming memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, which is due to be released on November 1.
Earlier this month, the Chandler Bing actor revealed he had a near brush with death at the age of 49.
The 53-year-old said he spent weeks in a hospital fighting for his life after his colon burst from opioid overuse.
Matthew told PEOPLE: “I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again.”
“I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people.”
In his memoir, the actor reveals he spent two weeks in a coma and five months in the hospital and had to use a colostomy bag for nine months.
He says that when he was first admitted to the hospital, “the doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live. I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.”
Matthew, who was just 24 when he was cast as Chandler Bing in Friends, called a terrifying time in his career that he was taking 55 pills a day.
He told PEOPLE: “I didn’t know how to stop. If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail,’ I’d start packing. I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older.”
The 53-year-old has been to rehab 15 times, and had 14 surgeries on his stomach so far.
Matthew said fans who read his book will “be surprised at how bad it got at certain times and how close to dying I came”.
He continued: “I say in the book that if I did die, it would shock people, but it wouldn’t surprise anybody. And that’s a very scary thing to be living with. So my hope is that people will relate to it, and know that this disease attacks everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re successful or not successful, the disease doesn’t care.”
“I’m an extremely grateful guy. I’m grateful to be alive, that’s for sure. And that gives me the possibility to do anything.”
“What I’m most surprised with is my resilience. The way that I can bounce back from all of this torture and awfulness. Wanting to tell the story, even though it’s a little scary to tell all your secrets in a book, I didn’t leave anything out. Everything’s in there.”
Matthew added that his story is one “that’s filled with hope. Because here I am.”
