Featured Image Credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images/Kayti Edwards/Facebook
Topics: Celebrity, Matthew Perry, Sex and Relationships, US News, Friends, Mental Health, Drugs
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Celebrity, Matthew Perry, Sex and Relationships, US News, Friends, Mental Health, Drugs
Matthew Perry's former assistant has opened up about their relationship and why she felt like she had to quit.
The beloved Friends actor passed away aged 54 after being found unresponsive at his home in Los Angeles on October 28, 2023.
Traces of ketamine were discovered in the actor's system by a Los Angeles medical examiner, it reported Perry was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for anxiety and depression.
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The actor spoke openly about his mental health and experiences with drug addiction in his memoir Friends, Lovers and The Big Terrible Thing, revealing he'd spent over $7 million on trying to remain sober, including going to rehab a total of 15 times.
And Kayti Edwards, who dated the star in 2006 and later became his assistant in 2011, has opened up about their relationship and seeing him battle his addiction.
In an exclusive interview with The Mirror US, Edwards explained despite Perry paying her 'very well as his assistant', there 'came a point' he 'got so bad' she felt like she had 'no choice but to walk away from that salary'.
She continued: "But I knew that I could not watch him die. I would never, ever be able to live with myself.
"There were so many sleepless nights that I would go home and I would wake up at four in the morning texting him, 'Are you alive? Are you alive? Just answer. Send me an emoji. Send me something that you are there.'
"I couldn't sleep at night knowing what he was doing. And I think part of me stayed as long as I did, because if I didn't stay, he would have been alone, and he would have just kept going."
In January 2011, Edwards said she told Perry she couldn't 'do this anymore'.
She continued: "I said, [...] 'I am sorry you [are] going to hate me, but we are getting you in rehab.'"
As Perry embarked on his sobriety journey, he spoke about his experiences openly and helped others living with addiction, even setting up a facility for sober living.
In an interview on the Q With Tom Power podcast, the actor reflected: "When I die, I don’t want Friends to be the first thing that’s mentioned. I want that [helping people with addiction] to be the first thing that’s mentioned.
"And I’m gonna live the rest of my life proving that."