Matthew Perry’s mom, Suzanne Morrison, got emotional while reflecting on her son’s years-long battle with addiction before his death last year.
Suzanne and her husband, “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison, sat down with “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie to discuss Perry’s life in an interview released Monday.
“I’m a very lucky woman, but there was one glitch, there was one problem that I couldn’t, I couldn’t conquer it,” Suzanne said while her voice cracked and she started to tear up.
“I couldn’t help him.”
Suzanne got emotional later in the interview when thinking about Perry’s battle with addiction for decades prior to his death and his struggle to get sober.
“The one thing I have to learn [is] very hard to do, and that’s … You got to stop blaming yourself because it tears you up,” she admitted.
Suzanne and Keith –– who have been married since 1981 –– recalled getting the phone call on October 28, 2023, that the “Friends” actor had died.
“Somebody called Suzanne, and he just said, ‘Matthew’s dead,’” Keith, 77, shared, as Suzanne chimed in, saying the person on the phone said, “‘Matthew’s dead. Your son is dead.’”
The couple also reflected on Perry’s life and how he had a “light up the room personality” but struggled with his own thoughts.
“I think that he was also very lonely in his soul,” Suzanne said, while Keith added that his stepson was “an insecure, often very sad guy.”
Shortly before his death, Perry “went through a period” where he was having more meaningful conversations with his mom.
“He came up to me, and he said, ‘I love you so much, and I’m so happy to be with you now.’ … It was almost as though it was a premonition or something,” Suzanne shared.
“‘How long has it been since we’ve had a conversation like that? It’s been years,’” she remembered thinking.
Suzanne went on to say she felt “there was an inevitability to what was going to happen next to him.”
Perry was 54 when he died in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles last year. His cause of death was later determined to be acute effects of ketamine, with drowning and coronary artery disease as contributing factors.
Prior to his death, the “17 Again” star said he was sober while relaying to his family that he was also using ketamine –– an anesthetic used to treat depression and pain –– to help him through his addiction.
“We didn’t know how much of it he was taking,” Keith confessed, later adding that it “hadn’t turned into something he couldn’t control.”
Keith said it “appeared” to him that Perry was sober, while Suzanne disagreed.
The “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing” author’s usage of ketamine reportedly “spiral[ed] out of control” in the months leading up to his sudden death.
Since then, five people –– including two doctors and Perry’s personal assistant –– have been charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine in connection with his death.
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