Adele stopped her Las Vegas show to pay tribute to Matthew Perry as “incredibly, incredibly brave”. The ‘Hello’ singer, 35, is still performing her weekend residencies in The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, and at Saturday’s (28.10.23) show told fans she had grown up watching him play Chandler Bing on ‘Friends’.
Speaking just after the actor was found dead aged 54 in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home in a suspected drowning incident, Adele was seen in footage captured by fans saying: “It’s always quite shocking when, especially someone that made you laugh, who brought so much joy to your life that you don’t know – this what I find so strange.”
“I’ve never met him in my life. It’s happened with a few other comedians and stuff like that. But there’s something so… you feel so sad about it. Especially because you don’t necessarily know what was going on.”
Mum-of-one Adele – who was dressed in a gothic-inspired black dress and wig for Halloween – added about how she thought Matthew’s decision to share his addiction struggles was courageous: “But some of my favourite memories of when I was younger with my friends; and one of my friends, Andrew, when I was like 12 did the best Chandler impression and he would do it all the time to make us laugh, and if any of us were having a bad day or feeling low he would just pretend to be Chandler and I’ll remember that character for the rest of my life.”
“I remember visiting New York for the first time and going on a ‘Friends’ tour, stuff like that, and (Matthew) was a really big part of my life and he was so open with his struggles with addiction and sobriety, which I think is incredibly, incredibly brave. And yeah, I just want to say how much I love what he did for all of us. Especially what he did for me. One of the best comedic characters of all time and hopefully now he can rest in peace.” Adele is one of a flood of actors and stars who have paid tribute to Matthew, who said in his memoir his drink and drug addictions nearly left him dead.