Matthew Perry’s onscreen Friends mother reveals what she wishes she had told the late actor

Morgan Fairchild, the actress who played Chandler Bing’s mother on Friends, shared memories of the later actor and what she wished she could have told him.

The Friends actor, 54, died from a ketamine overdose and drowning on October 28, 2023 at his Pacific Palisades home.

‘Just that I’m so sorry, and I wish he had reached out for help more,’ she told E! News. ‘When I was on set with him—and I was occasionally when he was going through some of the problems—I tried to be there for him.

‘But it’s very hard when you’re not around that much, and I was in and out of the show. And so when it’s in the depth of their problem, it’s difficult. But I would have been there for him.’

Chandler Bing star Perry’s manner of death was ruled to be accidental, and the autopsy report released in May showed the actor died from acute effects of ketamine.

His battle with long addiction had been well-documented and when his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing was released in 2022, he told the New York Times he was 18 months sober. 

‘I think everyone thought he was coming out on the other side of the problems,’ Fairchild added, ‘and so I think it was probably a real shock to everyone—at least it was to me.’

Fairchild also once worked with Matthew’s father, John Bennett Perry, who she acted with in the TV shows Flamingo Road and Falcon Crest.

‘I knew his dad back in the day,’ she said. ‘And the loss of a child—the loss of especially such a wonderful, giving and talented child when everything seemed to be doing so much better—it was just very sad.’

Perry even remembered Fairchild when she appeared on the set of Friends. 

After ‘bounding over’ to her, Fairchild recalled the actor saying, ‘Oh, you won’t remember me, but I used to hang out on the set of Flamingo Road and Falcon Crest with you, with my dad.”‘

Fairchild described Perry as someone who was sweet, kind, and generous. 

‘Just the sweetness, the kindness, the effervescence, the way he lit up a room and was so funny and kind and generous to everyone, that’s the way I remember him,’ she said. 

Perry remembered Fairchild when they began working together on Friends and helped jog her memory as he introduced himself on the set of the show

Highlight episodes for Fairchild included Chandler’s wedding to Monica Geller (Courteney Cox)

‘It’s very sad to see what’s happened when it looked like he was doing so much better. So, I think the loss of such a talent, such a lovely person that I remember as this really promising young actor, very funny, very sweet, it’s just very sad,’ she said. 

‘He was always very, very fun and funny between scenes,’ she said, ‘and I just remember he was the master of the double take.’

Highlight episodes for Fairchild included Chandler’s wedding to Monica Geller (Courteney Cox).

‘The rehearsal dinner and the wedding and everything,’ Fairchild told the outlet, ‘and just how funny he was—even between takes. But everything that he added to it with all the double takes and triple takes, he was just such a gifted, natural comedian. So those are the moments I remember—the fun, uplifting moments.’

Perry’s lengthy struggles with substance addiction were well-documented, but his death in October 2023 sent shockwaves through the global legions of Friends fans.

The Friends actor, 54, died from a ketamine overdose and drowning on October 28, 2023 at his Pacific Palisades home

A criminal investigation was launched soon after an autopsy discovered the actor had high levels of ketamine – an anesthetic – in his system.

Earlier this month, Mark Chavez, one of two doctors charged in connection with the drug overdose death, pleaded guilty.

Chavez, 54, faces up to 10 years in prison after admitting to conspiring to distribute ketamine in the weeks before the actor was found dead in the pool of his Los Angeles home.

Appearing before US District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett in a Los Angeles court, the bespectacled Chavez answered a series of questions before entering his plea of ‘Guilty, your honor.’

Two others caught in the dragnet – a live-in assistant and an acquaintance – have already pleaded guilty to their charges.

Another doctor – Salvador Plasencia – allegedly bought ketamine off Chavez and sold it to the desperate star at hugely inflated prices, musing “I wonder how much this moron will pay.”

Jasveen Sangha, the alleged ‘Ketamine Queen’ who supplied drugs to high-end clients and celebrities, is charged with selling Perry the dose that killed him.

Both Plasencia and Sangha face one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, as well as a raft of other charges, which they have denied.

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