Friends star Matthew Perry reveals opioid addiction and details near-death experience

Matthew Perry says he’s grateful to be alive after revealing how his drug addiction left him in a coma for two weeks and fighting for his life.

The Friends star, 53, has opened up about his struggles with drugs and alcohol in upcoming memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, as well as in a new interview with People.

Perry, who played wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the hit sitcom for ten seasons, recalled how he came close to death just a few years ago at the age of 49.

The Canadian-born actor’s colon burst from opioid overuse and what followed was five months in hospital and nine with a colostomy bag.

He told People: “The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent 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.”

Prior to that, he said he spent many years on and off the wagon and at the height of his addiction he was taking 55 Vicodin a day with weight plummeting to 128 pounds.

Perry praised his Friends castmates, including Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer and Matthew LeBlanc, saying they “were understanding, and they were patient,” but ultimately only he could help himself.

He says he has been in and out of rehab 15 times to-date and while he still has his demons to battle, told the publication that currently he is “pretty healthy now”.

14 surgery scars on his stomach serve as a contact reminder to help keep him on track.

“That’s a lot of reminders to stay sober,” he added. “All I have to do is look down.”