FRIENDS star Matthew Perry After his drug addiction burst, he was forced into a colostomy bag and had to continue using it for nine months.
Actor, 53, claims a severe addiction to OxyContin put him on life support with severely damaged organs.
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Matthew’s drug-related history is revealed in a shockingly honest memoir.
Before yesterday’s launch of the book Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing, the A-list actor told how he had nearly died and had had a one in 50 chance of surviving after his colon burst.
This is his first public statement about the two weeks he spent in a vegetative state and five months he spent fighting for his survival in hospital after a gastrointestinal rupture.
After the horrific incident in 2018, he had to use a colonostomy bag for nine more months.
Matthew told People magazine: “The doctors told my family that I had a two per cent chance to live.
“I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs.
“And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.”
Although his struggles with substance abuse are well-documented, he has not been as open about his addiction and its impact on his health.
He claimed that he was 24 years old when he started to drink heavily after he joined Friends.
However, Vicodin was prescribed to him after he was injured in a 1997 jet ski accident.
Matthew first admitted to rehab. He spent 20 consecutive days at the Hazelden Betty Ford Center.
But it wasn’t enough to get him clean, and Matthew — who has previously admitted he “doesn’t remember filming three years” of Friends — continued to fight his demons.
While he tried to hide his condition, his yo-yoing weight fluctuating from series to serie alarmized both his co-stars.
He said: “I could handle it, kind of. By the age 34, I was in deep trouble.
“But there were years that I was sober during that time. Season Nine was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, ‘That should tell me something’.”
He was drinking one litre of vodka per day by 2001.
Matthew was at his worst and was taking over 55 Vicodin tablets per day, weighing just 9st.
He told People yesterday: “I didn’t know how to stop.
“If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail’, I’d start packing.
“I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older.”
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With the support of his Friends cast mates — Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer — Matthew attempted to get clean, despite numerous relapses.
He said: “They were understanding and they were patient. It’s like penguins. When one of the penguins is injured or sick in nature, the others surround it to support it.
“They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
Matthew has been in rehab for 15 times so far. However, he claims he is currently doing well. “pretty healthy now”. He doesn’t want to say how long he has been sober, but says he counts every day.
He added: “It’s important, but if you lose your sobriety, it doesn’t mean you lose all that time and education.
“Your sober date changes, but that’s all that changes. You know everything you knew before. As long as you were able to fight your way back without dying, you learn a lot.”
He said that the scars from his 14 stomach surgeries have kept him going.
Look down
He said: “That’s a lot of reminders to stay sober. All I have to do is look down.”
Severe addiction to opiates such as OxyContin — which Matthew was also hooked on — can cause severe constipation, and in turn, serious bowel problems, which is what happened to him when he was 49.
He was advised that he could lose complete control of his bowels after the near-death experience.
Matthew told People: “My therapist said, ‘The next time you think about taking OxyContin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life’.
“And a little window opened, and I crawled through it, and I no longer want OxyContin any more.”
Matthew is now able to see the beauty in life and has begun to care for others who are addicted. He says that the reason he wrote the book is because he was addicted. “pretty certain that it would help people”.
He said: “There were five people put on an ECMO machine that night, and the other four died, and I survived. So the big question is why? Why was I the one? There has to be some kind of reason.”
Matthew is now healthy and fans will feel reassured after he caused fears by slurring his words and nodding off during an interview in support of the Friends reunion.
He stated that he is “grateful to be alive”He is proud of how he has fought his way back.
He said: “What I’m most surprised with is my resilience. The way that I can bounce back from all of this torture and awfulness.”
The book will detail his worst moments and most difficult struggles, regardless of how shocking. It will be published November 1st.
He said: “Even though it’s a little scary to tell all your secrets in a book, I didn’t leave anything out. Everything’s in there.”
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