The One About Matthew Perry: All the revelations in new Netflix doc as late star's friends and family break their silence on his troubled legacy

A new documentary about the late Matthew Perry reflects on the star's life and career before his untimely death in 2023. 

Matthew – who found fame playing Chandler Bing in Friends – died at the age of 54 after drowning in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home following a ketamine overdose. 

Now those who knew him best have come together to remember him in The One About Matthew Perry, a three-part Netflix series with a title that nods to his Friends career. 

Matthew's Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer declined to participate, with the series giving a voice to other loved ones such as his sister Mia and childhood friends. 

It's the first time Mia has spoken out about her brother's death, with the psychotherapist saying she 'learned how to hold gratitude and grief simultaneously. That was overall encompassing of how I felt watching the doc.'

Director Mary Robertson said of the series: 'Mia was able to give voice to experiences that are hers and hers alone, but there’s clearly a universal aspect to these experiences.' 

Now the Daily Mail reveals the revelations made in The One About Matthew Perry.

Matthew spent $7million trying to get sober

Matthew's struggles with addiction were no secret, but now his family have revealed the extreme lengths the actor went to in a bid to get sober. 

The 17 Again star went to rehab 15 times and attended 6,000 AA meetings as he battled lifelong addictions to alcohol, prescription opioids (such as Vicodin and OxyContin), and later ketamine. 

Psychotherapist Mia reflected: 'My brother would talk about that feeling of emptiness or loneliness that he couldn't quite fill.

'He spent $7million trying to get sober. That's how seriously he took his disease.'

Matthew's drinking began with beer and cheap wine when he was only 14 years old, and by his 21st birthday party it was already showing signs of being out of control. 

He developed an addiction to Vicodin, a painkiller he took following a jet-ski accident soon after he joined the show. The maximum daily dosage is eight tablets but, by the end of the third season of Friends, he was swallowing around 55 a day. 

In 1995, a former girlfriend with whom he was still friendly insisted he see a doctor about his addictions.

This led to the first of many stints in rehab. But even as he left, he knew he was going to drink again – lasting only nine weeks before once again hitting the bottle.

In 2018, his addiction to opioids had left him with pneumonia and a burst colon. Shortly after being admitted to hospital he slipped into a coma, which would last two weeks. 

When he came round he discovered he had been fitted with the colostomy bag he had to wear for the next nine months. 

Yet even this was not enough to keep him sober.

Two years later his heart stopped beating for five minutes after doctors at a luxury rehab facility in Switzerland administered a sedative which interacted with the opioids in his ravaged body.

They managed to resuscitate him but broke eight ribs in the process, forcing him to pull out of a role alongside Meryl Streep in the film Don't Look Up. 

His sister found out about his addiction from a magazine

Matthew sheltered his sister from his addiction struggles, but Mia found out after reading the news in a celebrity gossip magazine. 

Mia recalled: 'I remember thinking, "That's obviously not true. I would know if something was going on. I'm his sister. We're close.'

So Mia then asked her parents about the story, who admitted Matthew was in rehab. 

Former NBC executive Warren Littlefield revealed that producers began to say 'Matthew has a problem' shortly before Friends started filming season four.

They advised Matthew check into rehab, which he did, with Warren saying Matthew chose a 'very tough' facility, with his attitude being 'I need to be in a tough environment holding myself accountable.'

Producers believed that 'Matthew was wounded, and he would heal', so after a 28-day rehab stint and two months off, they began production on the fourth season of Friends.

Matthew 'regretted' moving on 'quickly' from girlfriends

Matthew never married or had children, but over the years he had several high-profile relationships and flings. 

His childhood friend Roger Castillo said he would consider 'several' of Matthew's relationships to be 'serious'.

Yet he noted:  'But he would move on quickly, and then regret moving on.'

He recalled that after most breakups, Matthew would turn to him and say 'I loved her so much. Why did I do that? I made a terrible mistake. Don't mention her name!'

Matthew's ex Rome Shadanloo claimed that 'intimacy was [Matthew's] greatest wish, and biggest fear'.

Batman helped Matthew through his recovery

Mia revealed that her brother was 'absolutely obsessed with Batman from a very young age' and when he was in ICU, he held onto a Batman action figure. 

While she believed the figure was brought to him by an assistant, she said she couldn't figure out how it kept getting to different parts of the hospital.  

She shared: 'I don't understand how it got from the ER to the surgery and then back over to the ICU.

'It remained in his hospital room going forward, and then it was in his home after that.'

Matthew's painkiller addiction was triggered by an on-set injury

While Matthew had struggled with alcohol - having had his first drink aged 14 - his battle with painkiller addiction didn't start until he was injured on the set of 1997's Fools Rush In. 

Doug Draizin, the film's producer, revealed that during a lunch break at location at Lake Mead, Matthew got permission to take a jet ski out on the lake. 

However, disaster struck when he 'flung himself in the air and hurt himself.' 

Matthew said in archived footage: 'I had no idea what was going on. The doctor gave me a pill in a package and said, "Take this when you're done shooting". 

'I did and then I felt this incredible euphoria. So why wouldn't I take more? Then I started to feel sick when I wasn't taking them...'

'Who knows what would have happened if that accident didn't happen,' Doug shared.

Chandler and Monica's wedding was filmed amid Matthew's rehab stints 

The two-part season seven Friends finale showed a different side to Chandler, with the character breaking down as he said his vows to Monica. 

And filming the scenes were certainly emotional for Matthew, who was 'going back and forth' from rehab at the time.  

His family attended the filming to support him, with Mia recalling: 'It was a really big deal, because we're all worried about him. We don't know what's going to happen in the future.

'The unspoken truth that we all were sitting with in some way or another, was, "Is this his wedding?" When Matthew said his vows to her, the emotion in his eyes and everything was so real.' 

Mia added that Matthew and Courteney 'had such a lovely relationship, and years of working through this thing.

'There was so clearly actual love there,' she added. 'Platonic love, but love. It's a happy memory, mixed with some sadness.'

Matthew identified with Chandler 

While many actors have expressed their frustration at fans thinking they are the same as their characters in real life – Matthew had the luck of being just like his most famous character. 

In archived footage, Matthew was seen revealing that a pal had told him to go up for the Friends because they'd seen the script and Chandler reminded them of him. 

Matthew said in the footage he identified as 'a guy who was sort of trying to distract everybody from how miserable he was all the time by being funny'.

Chandler was the last role to be cast, with former NBC executive Warren Littlefield recalling it took 'less than 30 seconds' of Perry's audition for everyone in the room to feel, "Oh yeah, this is it. This is Chandler. He just nailed it".' 

Matthew went back on opioids because his teeth were falling out

Years of substance abuse damaged Matthew's teeth, yet in a cruel twist of fate the dental work he needed as a result meant he was put back on opiates for pain. 

West Huddleston, Matthew's friend and a pioneer in the drug court movement, said the star was 'deathly afraid of that spiral again'.

He then recalled seeing Matthew 'going to a ketamine clinic' when he was getting his energy back after 'he detoxed from the pain meds'.

The Friends cast held hands and cried around his casket at the funeral

Matthew's private funeral was 'close friends and family only', with the actor's Friends co-stars walking in together. 

Mia recalled: 'I hadn't seen them in easily 20 years. Jennifer Aniston was the first one of them to come up to me and give me a huge hug. But they all did.

'And then, all five of them walked up to the casket holding hands and stood around him, crying.'

Mia went on to reveal she felt her brother's presence during the funeral and he made her laugh despite the tough circumstances.

She said: 'He showed up right behind my right shoulder and goes: 'How f***** up is this?' And I started laughing so hard. I was like: 'Oh, my God - there he is!'

'Making me laugh at the most horrible moment, and also incredibly inappropriate for me to start laughing.

'But I just started cracking up. And I was like: "Yeah man, this is pretty f****d up."'

His family felt 'betrayed' by his assistant

Following Matthew's death, his long-time assistant Kenneth Iwamasa was among the five individuals convicted. 

Mia expressed her upset at the news, saying: 'The level of betrayal we all felt...

'He should have known better. He could have quit his job. He could have come and told one of the family members. He could have done a lot of different things. He could have made a lot of different choices.'

She added that she 'felt really like I had been duped, deeply' because the family 'all really liked him and really trusted him.'

Kenneth, who injected the Friends star 'repeatedly' with ketamine on the day he died, was sentenced to more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, causing death. 

Four other people were convicted for their part in his overdose, including the actor's drug counsellor, his 'Ketamine Queen' drug dealer Jasveen Sangha, and two doctors.

The One About Matthew Perry is on Netflix now. 

If you are struggling with substance abuse in the UK, talk to FRANK on 0300 123 6600. In the US contact Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on 1-800-662-4357