Matthew Perry’s home was reportedly packed with a huge range of prescription medications – from anti-depressants and anxiety pills to heart disease drugs. The ‘Friends’ actor, 54, who spent years battle drug addictions that nearly killed him, was found dead on Saturday (28.10.23) night after a suspected drowning incident in the hot tub at his ranch-style home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles.
Even though emergency medics who were called to his home are understood not to have found any illegal drugs at the scene of the Chandler Bing actor’s death, TMZ is reporting they discovered “multiple” prescribed substances.
The outlet said: “Our law enforcement sources said authorities found anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs and a COPD drug in the house.”
COPD is short for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and drugs used to treat it are often used for people who have emphysema or chronic bronchitis. Matthew was heavy smoker, and it has been reported medics were originally called to his home on Saturday to respond to a suspected cardiac arrest incident.
The LA County Coroner will conduct a toxicology exam to determine if any drugs were in Matthew’s system, but it could take months before the results emerge. Police have said no drugs were found at the scene and no foul play was suspected. Matthew is believed to have been single at the time of his death after breaking up with his talent manager ex-fiancée Molly Hurwitz, 29, in 2021 after three years of dating.
He spent 10 seasons playing Chandler on ‘Friends’ while struggling with a string of addictions.
Despite saying he had kicked his drug and drink habits, Matthew had often sparked concern for his health by being seen out and about looking overweight and dishevelled.
His memoir ‘Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: A Candid, Darkly Funny Book’ exposed his struggles with addictions that got so severe that in 2018 at the age of 49 he suffered a gastrointestinal perforation as a result of his extreme opiate usage. He was given just a two per cent chance of living after being comatose for two weeks and the actor had to use a colostomy bag while his colon healed.
Matthew revealed that while his body was relying on the bag, he woke up covered in his own faeces “50 to 60” times throughout the five months he was hospitalized. He said: “I had s*** all over my face, all over my body, in the bed next door. When it breaks, it breaks. You have to get nurses.”
He said at the peak of his addictions he was consuming about 55 Vicodin pills a day and weighed just 128 pounds. Matthew also joked viewers could now tell what drugs he was abusing by observing his varying appearance on ‘Friends’.
He said in his book: “You can track the trajectory for my addiction if you gauge my weight from season to season. When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills; when I have a goatee, it’s a lot of pills.”
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