Jennifer Aniston broke down in tears over the “idea of losing” Matthew Perry in a resurfaced video in the wake of the actor’s untimely death.
In a 2004 interview with Diane Sawyer, the actress was asked what her Friends co-star didn’t know about himself and needed to hear.
“That he’s alright,” the now-54-year-old replied before becoming emotional.
“He struggled,” Jennifer continued, referencing Matthew’s struggles with alcohol and drug addiction, “and we didn’t know”.
“We weren’t equipped to deal with it. Nobody had ever dealt with that.”
“And the idea of ever losing him…” she added.
In his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew revealed he became an alcoholic at the young age of 14.
@dailymail Resurfaced video of Jennifer Anniston in tears over Matthew Perry’s struggles with substance abuse 💔🕊️ #jenniferaniston #matthewperry #chandlerbing #ripmatthewperry #fyp #friendsforever #restinparadise #friendscast ♬ apathy – Øneheart
Matthew, who played Chandler Bing in Friends, became addicted to Vicodin after being involved in a jet-ski accident in 1997.
The actor’s weight dropped as low as 128lb (58kg), and he took as many as 55 Vicodin tablets daily.
He previously admitted he couldn’t rewatch certain seasons of Friends because he didn’t recall filming any of the episodes.
In an interview with Diane Sawyer, Matthew recalled how his Friends co-star Jennifer approached him on set one day, and bluntly revealed that the entire cast “know you’re drinking”.
“Imagine how scary a moment that was,” he explained, adding that the actress who played Rachel Green helped him through his recovery.
This was especially difficult for Matthew to hear, having admitted to having a crush on Jennifer before Friends began filming in 1994.
“The time I realised I had a crush on Jennifer Aniston was way before the show started.”
“It was like two years earlier when I met her and how could you not have a crush on her,” the actor gushed.
Unfortunately for Matthew, his crush on Jennifer wasn’t reciprocated.
“There was such severe indifference from her that I ended my crush,” the Chandler Bing actor continued. “I had to. So, I think I ended it in time.”
“But I thank her in the book for allowing me to look at her face for like two extra seconds than normal people would,” he joked.
“I never said anything, and I hid it, you know, the crush,” Matthew continued. “But, you know, then she married Brad Pitt, and I was like ‘I don’t think I have a chance here.’”
