Matthew Perry says he was given 2% chance to live at height of his addiction struggles

Matthew Perry says he was given 2% chance to live at height of his addiction struggles

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Matthew Perry has bravely opened up about his past in a new memoir, admitting that he was given a 2 percent chance to live at the height of his addiction struggles.

Most people know the 53-year-old actor for his role as Chandler Bing in the long-running sitcom Friends.

And though Perry has been open about his addiction in the past, he delves into the topic in great depth in his autobiography Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, which is out on November 1.

Speaking to People ahead of the launch, the star explained that he wanted to wait to tell the story until he was in a secure place in his sobriety.

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“I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again,” he told the outlet.

“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.”

Perry went on to say that when he was first cast on Friends, his alcohol addiction was creeping up on him.

“I could handle it, kind of. But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble,” he said.

“But there were years that I was sober during that time. Season nine was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor?

“I was like, ‘That should tell me something’.”

Alongside alcohol, substances played a major part in his life – at one point during shooting the show he was taking up to 55 Vicodin a day.

The actor’s memoir opens with the shocking revelation that he almost lost his life at the age of 49 after his colon burst due to his opioid use.

Doctors discovered he’d suffered from a gastrointestinal perforation, which led to him spending two weeks in a coma and five months in a hospital while using a colostomy bag.

He explained that ‘the doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live,’ adding: “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.”

Thankfully Perry is through the other side now, and the beloved actor is now clean and sober and ready to tell his story.

“I’m pretty healthy now,” he told the publication, before joking: “I’ve got to not go to the gym much more, because I don’t want to only be able to play superheroes. But no, I’m a pretty healthy guy right now.”

If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support

Topics: Film & TV, Friends, Drugs, Life, Film and TV